The layers of sleep were lifted and so were his eyes. It was blurry at first, but his sharp blue eyes still managed to focus. What he focussed on was horrifying to him the first three seconds within coming back to reality. Below him were lavender sheets and sheer net was around him. He looked out and saw the TV, and then he saw Kelice walk past the bed only in a bra and tiny shorts. She smiled at him sweetly and continued getting dressed. Justin, petrified, turned and looked at the clock that read 7:30.
“Morning, Justin,” Kelice said before sitting at her vanity mirror.
“What the hell am I still doing here?”
Kelice laughed. “I don’t know, you tell me. I have to go to school, though, so you should leave.”
Justin lifted the sheets and looked under them, noticing his naked body. “Oh shit,” he moaned, “Please tell me we didn’t have sex last night.”
“We did, Justin, and it was wonderful.” Kelice beamed, “Your boxers are at the foot of the bed.”
Justin sat straight up in the bed and buried his face in his large palms. Slowly and sorrowfully, he ran his fingers through his tangled, unruly hair and groaned. He squeezed his eyes shut briefly, hoping he would wake up from the nightmare he had to be having. Once he opened them and saw Kelice still sitting at her mirror, he yelled. Abruptly, he yanked the covers off of his body and stood, moving quickly to retrieve his boxers. When he was fully dressed, he told Kelice he was leaving.
“Justin,” she called, preventing him from leaving the room. “That was fun, we should do it again.”
“Whatever, bye.”
* * * * **
So, I screwed up. I can’t believe I had sex with her! I was doing so well! Okay, calm down, Justin, it’s not that big of a deal-it’s just Kelice. I’m not even gonna lie though- the shit was good. I don’t even know how to explain it. To be honest, if I got the chance to do it again, I would. It’s a good ego-booster for a guy, ya know? After you haven’t had sex for so long, it starts to get to you, so when she was moanin’ and groanin’ that made me get into even more. Now, I’m addicted.
I’m probably going to go back to her house after school today. Especially after that blow job I got…good Lord! I will never be able to go back to chokin-the-chicken after that.
I hopped in my Bentley and headed back to my house. I told Melanie I’d be home at 10 o’ clock last night, and it’s going on 8 in the morning! How the hell am I going to get out of that one? She shouldn’t mind cause she’s cool like that. Besides, it’s not like I was cheating on her or anything; I was just handling business. Yeah, that’s what I’ll call it now…business- my dad does it. I wonder if Melanie really called Damien last night. I kind of hope she didn’t now because that will mean she’ll be looking forward to hooking up with me. I can’t hook up with her so soon, not after what I just did anyway. That was so good. Maybe next time we’ll use flavored condoms…I’ve always wanted to try those.
Well, isn’t this just craptacular? Daddy’s home! I parked behind the long black limo that he insists upon riding in, and got out of my car. Okay, be calm.
I entered the house and looked to see if my dad or Melanie was anywhere near. I don’t need them popping up out of nowhere and surprising me. I tiptoed up the stairs and saw the door to my room cracked open, just how I had left it last night- look’s like everything is still in place. Now, if I can get into my room and in the shower with out my dad or Melanie noticing, I’m good.
“Son, I missed you last night,” I heard my dad say from the other end of the hallway.
Damn. I waved in the direction of the open door on the other side of the balcony. I’m not going to talk to-
“Come on in, Justin.” He called again.
Now, I can be a good son and go inside, or I can disobey him and go take a shower. If I don’t do what he asks, he’s gonna come out and try to force me in there, just cause he’s an ass like that. I began in my direction to his office and my heart began to race.
“What’s going on?” I asked and sat down in front of him.
Randall cleared his throat loudly and folded his hands. Here we go- interrogation 101 at it’s best folks. After all, he is a lawyer. “Where were you last night?”
Shit, how do I start? Uhh…
My dad interrupted, “Melanie was worried about you. I don’t think ditching your guests like that is a good example of hospitality.”
“I went to see Kevin.”
“Kevin’s on vacation, Justin…in Florida.”
I forgot for a second there that he and my dad are friends. “Well I didn’t know.”
“So what were you doing at their house?” He asked.
I sighed. “I left after I found out that he wasn’t there.”
“You should’ve come home. What were you doing going to see Kevin, anyway?”
Gosh. “I just wanted to go say what’s up.”
“Okay. So, when you found out that he wasn’t there, did you hang out with Kelice?”
I need a beer. I’m gonna pass out. “No, I went…to JC’s house.”
My father rose his eyebrows. “Really? Why did you go to JC’s house?”
“What kind of question is that? He’s my friend.”
“Melanie’s your friend too, right?”
Duh. “Yeah.”
“Then why didn’t you come home?”
“I just planned on stopping by.“
“Like you did at Kevin’s?”
Holy shit. “Yeah, I had to talk about the band.”
“Why didn’t you just call?” My dad asked.
Fuck! “I-I don’t know.”
Randall leaned closer to me and stared. He knows I’m lying, and he knows that I know he knows, but he’s going to keep playing. “Well son, would you care to explain why you smell like Tommy Girl perfume?”
I hate lawyers! I sat there with my mouth open for two seconds. “There were people over- it’s Deanna’s.” What the fuck, Justin! You’re breaking! I need a beer!
“You were so close to her, that you got her perfume on your clothes?”
“Perfume diffuses.” Yeah, that’s that science for his ass.
He laughed, “Didn’t Kelice wear Tommy Girl perfume?”
Oh no he didn’t. He’s crossed the line. “I don’t remember.”
“Sure you do.”
“No, maybe you’d remember, since you were practically trying to steal her from me! Or maybe it’s one of your ‘client’s’?”
Randall leaned back slowly-yeah boy! “You’re dismissed. I’ll let Melanie talk to you, now.”
I got up quickly and left the room. My father is going to be grilling me the whole time I’m here- I can already tell. I should’ve known my dad of all people would’ve been able to tell that I had just had sex…come on, it’s my dad. I wonder how much he and Melanie talked last night, or if they even talked at all. He’s a good bluffer. This is way too much stress on my brain.
* * * *
Melanie exited her room in Justin’s home when she heard loud music being played across the hall. Realizing that Justin had finally arrived she opened his door without knocking. She didn’t feel as though she needed to, seeing as if he’d dissed her completely last night. Her eyes focussed sharply on the objects that occupied the room, and then she saw him.
In order to make her presence known, she spoke. “So you finally decided to come home?”
Justin, in a towel that was around his waist, turned around quickly. “Sorry, my meeting went a little long.”
Melanie stepped further in the room, and crossed her arms over her chest. “What kind of meeting goes over night, Justin?”
“Well, I went to JC’s house afterwards and we kicked it for a little bit,” he explained, and had the audacity to stare into her eyes.
“Oh. Was Deanna there?”
“Yeah,” He said shortly.
“I called Damien while you were…out,” she said softly.
Justin rose his eyebrows. “Yeah? What happened?”
“I couldn’t do it. He was going on and on about how much he missed me, and I felt bad. I really miss him and-“
“What?” Justin rose his voice; “You miss him?”
“Yeah,” Melanie nodded her head slowly and leaned against a wall for support.
“I can’t believe this,” he huffed and walked into his closet. “This is so…” he called and trailed off.
“So what, Justin?”
Justin came out now, only wearing mesh basketball shorts. “Unbelievable! How can you talk about being so ready to break up with him and then all of a sudden, just wanna go back? Do you know what that does to me, someone who’s expecting you to follow through? You basically lied!” He flailed his arms.
Melanie scoffed. “Do you know what that does to me, Justin? Someone who’s expecting your ass to come home when you say you will? Do you know what that does to me? Someone who’s bored and lonely, and freaks out at 1 o’ clock in the morning cause you’re still not home?” She stared at him expectantly and rolled her eyes. “You’re the one who lied, Justin. You’re lying right now.” She said the last part of her sentence gravely and stared at him just the same.
“I am not!”
Melanie rose her head to the ceiling and closed her eyes. “I thought you were different, Justin.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about!” She sighed deeply to calm herself down. “I called Deanna last night at about midnight asking if she knew where you were.”
Justin froze, and everything went cold for a spilt second. His brain began to turn, thinking of another lie to tell, but when Melanie continued to explain, it threw him off track.
“First of all, next time you wanna lie and say you were some place you weren’t, make sure you think. You could’ve at least called Deanna and told her your plan, smart guy. Even Damien knows how to do that.” She shifted her weight to her other leg. “Your dad got home at about ten, the time you were supposed to be home, and started asking me all these questions like who I was and how I knew you. You know, surface shit. He didn’t ask where you were, which makes me wonder just exactly what kind of father he really is. But, you’ve already explained a little about that, so we won’t open up that one.”
“Melanie-“
“I’m not finished talking,” She demanded and quieted Justin. “At about eleven o ‘ clock I was getting worried, but decided not to overdo it. So, that’s when I called Chasity, Jerome, and Damien. By the time I got off the phone with them, it was midnight. You still weren’t home. So, I went and asked your dad where you were.” She smirked, “You wanna know what he said?”
“What?” Justin asked.
“He said ‘Don’t worry about Justin, I’m sure he’s fine. All of us at the Timberlake Estate are used to seeing him come in at about 9 or ten in the morning.’ He then went on to say how you were probably out smoking or getting drunk if you hadn’t come back yet. What the hell is up with that, Justin?”
“Look, I’m not drunk okay? I’m not faded either,” he took a deep breathe, stalling for time, but Melanie interrupted him one more time.
“I lied about Damien. I called him and broke up with him.”
“Why did you tell me that you didn’t?”
“Because I didn’t think you’d have the nerve to call me a liar and label me as someone who doesn’t follow through, the same time you were telling me a bold-faced lie. I didn’t think you’d go back to that whore, Justin.”
“We didn’t do anything!” He protested.
“I don’t care what you did, honestly. I’m too busy worrying about threats that I’m going to have to face for breaking up with Damien. I was even dumb enough to tell him that I was out here with you, and he told me that when I got back that I should watch my back.”
Justin stood silently, his body filled with different emotions. He didn’t know what to say and he wanted to hurt himself for putting Melanie in potential danger. He’d seen Damien angry before, and the guy was extremely jealous just thinking about he and Melanie together. What he was going to do, he didn’t know. How he was going to dig himself out of the hole he was in, he didn’t know either.
“Melanie, you have nothing to worry about,” he tried to reassure her as well as himself.
“I have a lot to worry about, Justin. Why would you lie to me? If you’re as loyal as you say, and you know I trust you, then you should’ve had no problem telling me who you were going to see,” she shook her head. “You boys are all the same.”
“No, Melanie! I didn’t do anything with her! I honestly thought her dad was there, but she tricked me. I made it clear that I wasn’t gonna do shit with her. We talked, and that’s it.”
Melanie scoffed. “You talked?”
“Yeah, and then we saw a movie and got back at like one. I had a couple of drinks that night too, so she didn’t want me driving back home,” he lied ridiculously.
“So you spent the night?”
“Yeah,” he agreed, “I would’ve called you, but I didn’t know if you were sleeping.”
“Are you telling me the truth?” She inquired further, “because I’ve been lied to too many times.”
Without hesitation he said, “yes.”
Melanie stood, still deciding if she wanted to believe him or not. It began to dawn on her that Justin had never lied to her before and that he was always, in her opinion, the sweetest person. She stared at his cream-colored face and into his blue eyes.
She sighed and said, “I’m still mad at you, though.”
“For what?” He asked.
“For trying to lie to me, Justin. I just wanted to know where you were; you didn’t need to bring Deanna and JC into it.”
His insides filled with relief. “I know, I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I’ll gladly make it up to you,” he rose his eyebrows.
A slow grin formed on Melanie’s face, and she pushed herself off the wall before walking closer to him until she was right under his chin.
She looked up at him, “How so?”
“Anything you want,” he said tenderly.
She rubbed his bare stomach muscles and giggled softly. “Take me to Disneyland,” she said shortly and quietly.
Justin laughed at her persistence. “We can go today!”
Melanie made a sad face and said, “I have dance classes today with Hi-Hat. It took me forever to get in.”
Justin pulled her into a hug and set his chin on top of her head. “Do you think you can um…not go to those choreographers Kelice told you about?”
Melanie pulled back and looked at him like he was crazy. “Why? Is there something I should know about?”
“No,” he shook his head, “It’s just that Kelice did that because she doesn’t want you around me as much. Not out of the goodness of her heart…she doesn’t have one.”
Melanie laughed, “Fine, If you don’t want me to go then I won’t-“
“It’s not like…I don’t know, I don’t trust Kelice and I want to spend as much time with you as possible.”
“Well, I’ll call Danielle today and see if she wants to take Sho-tyme’s class after she gets out of school.”
Justin smiled and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. Melanie reached up and snaked her arms around his neck before kissing him again and giggling. As they stood in his room, but in their own little world kissing, Justin’s mind wandered back to the previous night. His stomach churned his guilty conscience, so he pulled away.
“I need to tell you something important.” He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Melanie seriously.
She nodded her head, her eyes still glued to his.
“Um…” He pictured himself telling her that he wasn’t really a virgin and that he’d been lying to her since they’d first shown their affection. He then pictured her slapping him across the face, the pain being tremendous, and demanding to be put on the first plane back to Chicago…coach even. “I think we should go shopping.”
Melanie’s mouth dropped and the skin on her forehead creased with confusion. “What? We just went shopping!”
“I wanna get you something nice,” he whined, hoping if he gave her something sparkly it would outshine his shady actions.
“Why?”
“Because you’re a nice girl.”
Melanie took a step back. “I’m still only a nice girl? How come all of a sudden I feel like the one doing the chasing? What happened to being so ready to start something with me?”
Justin widened his eyes and rose his eyebrows. “Well, um…” he cleared his throat, “If you want we can-“
“If I want?” She crossed her arms over her chest, “so I guess this isn’t as important to you as I thought it was. I’m confused, Justin.”
“I need some time to think about things,” he settled.
“Don’t you mean Kelice?” Melanie spat and rushed out the room and into her own, the door slamming shut.
* * *
Three Days Later
When I went to Sho-tyme’s class with Danielle, he said he wanted me back to interview me. For what, I didn’t know but Danielle said that it meant he was interested in my dancing. He’s holding the audition for Mya’s tour on Saturday, which is…tomorrow!
Justin and I have been, okay I guess. We’re going to dinner tonight, but we haven’t been seeing too much of each other. He’s always with his friends, and I’m always with Deanna and Danielle. I saw him high for the first time yesterday, and I was sad…extremely sad. Justin is far from ugly and when I saw him like that, I had lost my appetite. His eyes were all puffy and red, and so was his nose. He reminded me of the white version of Snoop Dogg, except without the braids. His hair being as long as it is made it even worse.
He was sitting on the side of the house with two Mexican guys that looked like they were the gardeners, and another white guy that I didn’t know.
I saw them after Deanna, Danielle, and I had come back from the galleria. The girls told me to just turn my head and act like I didn’t notice, but I couldn’t do that so I stood for a minute and watched him blow smoke out of his nose and mouth at the same time. It was disgusting; he even had the nerve to try and talk to me after he was done. You could smell him a mile away.
Well, Justin hasn’t been okay, but I’ve been hanging in there. We went to this club last night. I didn’t want to go, and it sucked being the only 17-year-old with 6 others that were 18. The bouncers let me in anyway, though. Deanna told JC not to buy Justin drinks, but when she told him that, he was drunk, so he didn’t really know what he was doing. Kelice, who was there, sure was happy that Justin was getting back to his old self again. Fortunately, he didn’t even dance with her and she looked extremely pissed.
“You’re a waste of my time,” he’d slurred over the music, “but you’re still the homie.”
We went to Disneyland yesterday, and it was so fun and cute! We went to that other place, California Adventure, too but that was kind of boring. The day we went to Disneyland, we were rollin’ like ten deep, man. There was a big group of us and we acted like the park was ours. Justin was perfectly normal that day, and the perfect gentleman. The way he acted yesterday made me forget about the previous days that consisted of the bad attitudes and the drinking and smoking. I grin just thinking about it, because I had so much fun!
I took tons of pictures with just about every Disney character, and Justin hit on Minnie! That is until Mickey came…. When we went to the Haunted Mansion they all thought it would be the greatest thing in the world to scare the shit out of me! We were standing in the elevator, me, scared as hell, and they kept tickling the back of my neck and bugging me! Justin screamed right in my ear and started shaking me! He was the loudest one on the damn ride. I was the one stuck sitting in between he and Chris- not a good combination!
On Indiana Jones, Jared and Lance were crying when they saw the boulder coming toward them. I guess they’d never gotten on that ride. Justin and me made out on Snow White, I screamed in his mouth when the witch popped out though. I took a picture of him getting on Dumbo by himself. His hair was going all over the place and his legs were sticking out the elephant. We all got on the teacups, and I was the only one that didn’t get sick! It was hilarious seeing Justin’s face change colors, and hearing Deanna start wailing. You know I had to take a picture.
I took a picture with Justin and JC, and we all had on our little Mickey hats. Justin had to wear the Minnie Mouse headband though, cause his hair was too long for the hat to fit on. He kept it on for a while too. I think I’m going to put that picture in my locker. JC and Chris bought masks and walked around scaring little kids! It was so sad! They took their ice cream cones too! On the way home, we were all singing ‘It’s a Small World’ because Justin said I had to get on that ride and it was the last one we went on, seeing as if it was a two hour wait! Those singing kids were quite annoying, but Justin was sitting in the boat grinning like a mo fo.
I can’t believe I have to go back to Chicago in two days. We’ll be getting back at 11:07 Sunday night. To say I don’t want to go back would be a lie. I miss Chasity and mamma. I wanna meet this man of hers. She got the nigga buying her stuff now! I have to go back to work, though and that’s not fun. The only person who knows where I work, besides my mom, is Chasity and that’s because I know she won’t come in acting ghetto and distracting me.
**
Okay, so I haven’t told Melanie about my situation but I will tonight when we go to dinner. I’m still wondering if I should invite everyone else. I haven’t been anywhere alone with Melanie, except for that time we went to In-N-out and we didn’t even go inside. I haven’t been talking to Kelice, and I think I told her something I shouldn’t have cause ever since we went clubbin’ she hasn’t even been coming up to me.
I talked to my dad last night after we all got back from Disneyland- I think he’s an insomniac or just really psycho cause he was up at 3 in the morning. When I say up, I mean wide awake. I walked into the living room where he was watching TV and we just sat there silently for about a good ten minutes. He asked me if I’d had fun, and I told him that I did. The way he asked me wasn’t like he was interrogating me, searching for me to say something wrong though. It seemed like he really wanted to know, so I told him more about the day. When I told him about Lance and Jared being pansies on Indiana Jones, we shared a laugh…and then caught ourselves before stopping.
“I talked to your mother,” He said and rubbed his forehead. He looked tired, I could tell by the way that he was slouched down in his seat and how the bags under his eyes could carry groceries. “She said she misses you, but your brothers miss you even more. They’ve been giving her hell, and Steven got suspended from school. Jon poured his juice down the baby-sitter’s shirt and then threw the cup at her head. After that, she quit so your mom had to take off work early for most of the week.”
I honestly did feel bad after hearing that. My brothers are bad-asses and I can only get them to listen to me if I bribe them or hit them in the throat.
“How did you take care of your brothers, Justin?” He turned slightly to me.
“Most of the time, If I didn’t have homework I’d sit and watch TV with them- not that big of a deal, but if they wanted to watch what they wanted, they had to do their homework while they were watching TV. If not, I got to choose what I wanted to watch.”
“Do you help them with their homework?”
“Of course. They’re actually not as dumb as they look. I took them to practice with me occasionally if mom had to work late or something.”
I answered his questions about our life for a while. While I was telling him, he looked at me like he felt sorry, like he wanted to help out. I was sort of embarrassed because he was treating me like I was one of those kids on those commercials that are dirt poor and have no food.
“Do me a favor, will you?”
“No,” I said shortly. That had become an immediate response whenever he’d ask me to do something, but I didn’t want to spoil the ‘mood’ if you will, so I change my mind. “What?”
“When you go back home, tell your mother I love her and give her a hug and kiss for me.” It was then that I’d seen my dad look completely helpless for the first time. Part of me wanted to lean back and laugh at his sorry ass excuse for a father. “We hadn’t talked in a while, your mother and I, and I miss her.”
“You should’ve thought before you just went poking everybody.”
Randall nodded his head slowly, “You’re right. I should’ve, and I shouldn’t have put so much pressure on you, son. The time you told your mother I was unfaithful- do you remember that?”
“Yeah, It was at dinner and grandma and grandpa were there, “ I actually smirked- how could I forget.
“I wanted to strangle you, I’ll be honest-“
“You’ve always wanted to strangle me.”
“How can you say that?” What had turned into a light hearted conversation, escalated into a heated one quickly.
“You hated me, Dad! All you ever did was talk about how ungrateful I was, how I was never going anywhere because I had already gotten a girl knocked up! You never even went to my basketball games. For two years, you’ve held shit over my head, put me down time and time again.”
“Son, I didn’t hate you, and I don’t hate you now. You’re my son, and I love you.”
“How come you don’t act like it?” I wasn’t going to let him get away easily, and he sank back into the recliner before pondering.
“I’m sorry for not being there like I should’ve. I was too busy worrying about my women on the side, than my own family.” My dad stood up slowly, his age catching up with him. He walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. “You’ve grown.”
“That’s what people do.”
“You’ve grown on the outside, Justin. But, you’re still the same on the inside,” he shook his head. “I’ll admit, I still have things I need to work out, and believe me I’m trying.”
“How long has it been since you’ve had sex?” I chimed in immediately.
“A month.”
“You’re a liar!”
“Do you have a Bible? I’ll swear on the Bible.” He got me there, so I let him finish. “Please, stop leading this girl…uh…”
“Melanie?”
“Yes! Stop leading her on.”
“I’m not leading her on,” I shook my head.
“Justin, it’s obvious she cares about you. She shouldn’t have to see you out of control like you were a couple of days ago. She came up to me, asking me what the hell my problem was for not stopping you. That’s what really made me think about my parental duties, Justin. Kelice never even came to me, but this girl was almost in tears because she felt bad- but she was ready to curse me out.”
“Really?”
“Yes, she’s a good girl. Please, just stop lying to her.”
“It’s hard.”
“I know that! Don’t you think I’d know that? But, if you really cared about her enough to bring her all the way out here and show her who you are, then you wouldn’t want to lie to her anymore. She’s going to be mad, she might even hit you, but in the end, it’s worth it.”
For the first time in six years, I looked up to my dad again, even if I was looking down at him. For the first time in six years, I smiled at him because he’d just told me something I liked. For the first time in six years, we’d hugged…and meant it.
“Daddy, can I come back home?”
He pulled away and grinned, “I should be asking you if you even want to come back.”
“Of course, Beverly Hills has never looked better, I miss my Bently, my Benz, my rooms, my-“
“Justin.”
“And my dad.”
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