Blair cried the whole way back to Justin’s house. With her head in her hands, she sobbed like he had never heard before. She had kicked off her shoes as soon as she got inside the car, sat cross-legged on the seat, put her head in her hands and began to sob. She took in shaky breath every few seconds and then wailed again. She cried incoherent words to him and he just nodded and told her that everything would be okay. He kept saying “shhh” a lot, too. Justin would occasionally take one of his hands off the wheel and rub her back, but she would always cry harder when he touched her.
Not that Justin wasn’t upset about the evening, he had chosen not to let the things they said to him and about him bother him much. After all, he had heard and read a lot of bad things about him. He was used to bad press. However, Blair’s parents’ words stung him a little bit more than anything the press had said about him. Perhaps it was because they were supposed to be family and it killed him that he would never measure up. He couldn’t blame Blair for the way her parents treated him. He felt more sorry for her than for himself; she was the one sobbing, not him.
When Justin pulled into the driveway he told Blair that they had made it back. She cried an “okay” that Justin actually understood as she opened the door. Blair wiped under her eyes to try to clear away the mascara streaks that were probably there and tried to get her breathing back to normal as well as stop the tears. She had been able to cease the sobbing, but silent tears continued to spill from her big, sad blue eyes. As soon as they entered the house, Justin wrapped his arms around Blair in a hug. She clung tightly to him and started to cry louder again.
“I’m tired,” she yawned into his now wet shirt.
“You wanna stay here tonight?”
She nodded.
“Okay,” Justin said. “I’m gonna go upstairs, though, and shower again before I go to bed. You’re welcome to come upstairs and wait or you can stay down here if you want.”
“I’ll come up.”
“Okay,” he nodded and walked slowly towards the stairs with Blair.
He ended up taking the stairs two at a time when Blair told him she was going to change her clothes really quickly before she came up. Blair went back to the guest room she had taken over and changed into a pair of pajamas. She grabbed the Cosmopolitan magazine sitting on one of the bedside tables and took it upstairs. This time, Justin wasn’t singing while he was in the shower. Blair walked around his room, looking at the pictures in the picture frames. Most of them were of his friends and family, but there were a couple face down and she assumed that those photo frames were filled with pictures of Angela. She picked one of them up and looked at the woman behind the glass. Blair filled with emotion and decided it was best to put the picture back. She didn’t even know the woman and she was feeling so many things just by looking at her picture.
Next, Blair sat down on the left side of the bed to read her magazine while she waited for Justin to come out. Blair wasn’t actually reading the magazine, she was just looking at the pictures. Reading would require paying attention and focusing and she was not about to do that. It wasn’t long before Justin came out of the bathroom. He saw Blair laying sideways on the left side of his bed with the magazine spread out on top of her, as if she had been reading but had fallen asleep and rolled over.
Justin sat down on the right side of the bed, his side. He really liked sleeping on the right side of the bed. He wasn’t sure why but he figured everyone had a bed-side preference. He knew that Blair was partial to the left side. When he was with Angela, they would actually discuss who would be sleeping on the right side of the bed when they would sleep together. There was no discussion about bed-side preferences with Blair. Everything was so easy with her. Then Justin remembered that perhaps the reason things were so easy was because they weren’t dating. Perhaps the fact that people are dating makes things that much more complicated.
He took the magazine from Blair and turned down the blankets on his side of the bed and crawled under. He assumed that if Blair got cold later she would get herself under the blankets as well. Doing that, though, getting under the blankets, woke Blair up. She stirred in her sleep and then her eyes fluttered open.
“Shhh,” Justin said, turning off the light. “Go back to sleep.”
Blair didn’t bother saying anything, but she got herself under the blankets. She snuggled close to Justin and he wrapped his arm around her. He felt Blair’s foot touch his and he smiled. What a strange little quirk.
Now that Blair was awake, though, she couldn’t really fall back asleep. She liked being close to him, but couldn’t find sleep, so she decided she would just wait for it to find her. She focused on Justin’s breathing. It wasn’t long before his breathing indicated he was asleep. The longer she waited, the more tired she got.
Just before she felt sleep fall upon her, she whispered “I love you.”
A week later, September had arrived. That month that she was well on her way to delivering the baby. She had reached month five of pregnancy Blair called Justin from work to remind him that she had an ultrasound appointment to determine the gender of the baby. When she found out that she could finally tell whether she was going to have a boy or a girl, she became very excited. Justin told Blair he would meet her at the doctor’s office in time for the appointment. She asked him, once again, if he wanted a boy or a girl, just out of curiosity, and he told her, yet again, that he didn’t really care, as long as the baby was healthy. Blair squealed in delight and said that that was what she wanted as well. Justin shook his head at her excitement and couldn’t help but laugh. They hung up after coming to the conclusion once again that they would see each other at the appointment.
By the time of the appointment rolled around, Justin was running a bit late. He thought he would be able to finish the track he was working on, but found out too late that he wasn’t going to be able to. He took the steps two at a time from the downstairs recording studio in his home and to the door leading to the garage when the doorbell rang. He made a slight groaning sound as he ran in the other direction towards the front door. He was surprised, to say the least, when he was face-to-face with Angela once he opened the door.
“Hey,” he said in a funny voice. “What- what are you doing here?”
“I came to see you,” she said with a sweet smile. “That’s not a problem, is it?”
“Uh,” he stammered, checking his watch, “Actually, I’m just heading out.”
“Oh,” she looked disappointed. “I just thought we could talk about the magazine articles-”
“I knew it was you.”
“Justin, listen- hey, can I come in?”
Justin checked his watch again. “This really isn’t a good- okay!” Justin said, surprised by Angela’s action of stepping inside the house on her own accord. Blair was going to kill him, he had promised her.
“Whose are these?” Angela asked, pointing at a few pairs of brightly colored sandals which sat on the floor in a line.
“Um,” Justin said, really wishing this wasn’t happening. “My mom’s,” Justin lied, knowing that if he told the truth that Blair was spending as much or maybe even more time at his house than Angela did when they were together, she would probably get very upset. He was growing upset as time ticked by. He knew that even if he left right then he would miss practically all of the appointment anyway. “Listen, though, Ang, I’m really busy and this really isn’t a good time, so do you think you could call or stop by a different time?”
“Where are you off to?” Angela asked, stepping further inside.
“Uh, a doctor’s appointment,” he said. “And I’m very late.”
“Well, perhaps you might as well call and reschedule?” Angela said. She was not going to let him leave.
“Fine,” Justin said, looking at his watch once more. “Fine. I’ll call.” He patted his pocket to locate his cell phone. “I think I left my phone downstairs,” he said out loud. “I’ll be right back.” He jogged to the basement door and went down the stairs.
As soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs, as if on cue, the house phone rang. Angela looked around and decided she might as well answer it.
“Hello?”
Blair made a face at her phone. Had she dialed the right number? She didn’t know that voice. “Hi, who is this?”
“Angela,” she said sweetly, “Who is this?”
“Blair.” She was not amused.
Angela made a “hmm” sound that reminded Blair of the same sound her mother made. “And how can I help you?”
“Is Justin there?”
“Why, yes he is,” Angela said. “However, he’s busy at the moment, would you like me to take a message for him?”
“Yes,” Blair said, mimicking Angela’s voice. “I would love it if you would tell him that I called, and ask him to call me back?”
“I certainly will,” Angela said with a smile. Not.
“Great,” Blair said, still sweetly. “Thank you.”
“Okay, bye!”
“Bye.” Blair was very upset. Justin promised he would be there for the ultrasound. Why wasn’t he there, and who was that woman? Oh, was he in trouble. The appointment had already started. It had been going on for a while even before she called him. What hurt her most was that he was still home… with someone else, even after he had promised to be there.
Justin came up the stairs with his phone in hand. Angela met him right at the stairway and tried to distract him. She was acting so strangely, Justin thought. He hadn’t known her to be mischievous or a meddler, but lately that seemed to be what she was up to. Even Angela herself felt sort of bad for the way she was acting, but quickly dismissed the negative feelings.
She grabbed his hands, taking his phone away from him and setting it on the kitchen counter. She led him over to the couch.
“Justin,” Angela said, “I am really sorry for being so childish.” She looked at Justin, trying to find the spark in his eyes. “I am so sorry for selling you out and telling people your secret.”
“You had no right to do that,” Justin said. “I’m sorry I hurt you, but I told you I was sorry.”
“I know,” Angela nodded. “And it was incredibly inconsiderate of me to go behind your back and sell you out. It’s taken me all this time to realize something.”
“And that is…?” Justin asked, really not wanting to hear what he thought he was about to hear.
“I’ve realized that I still really care about you.”
Justin didn’t say anything.
“Justin,” Angela said, scooting closer to him on the couch they used to cuddle on. “I’m telling you I still love you.”
Silence.
“Justin, please say something.”
“It’s taken you over two months to figure out you still love me?” Justin asked. He wasn’t as happy to hear those words as he thought he would be. He had been torn between two women, Blair and Angela; his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his future child. He hadn’t been sure if he was still in love or if he had given up on love completely. He had liked to think that he still loved, and when he thought he still did, he thought he loved Angela, but since she wasn’t around he was just feeling love for Blair. However, now that Angela was right there with him, he didn’t feel love for her. He knew who his heart belonged to. He knew he still had love inside of him. “After selling me out and going behind my back, after telling me that I was the worst boyfriend ever, after making me feel like the worst person in the world,… after all of that you’re telling me you love me?”
It was Angela’s turn to be silent. She waited a moment before saying anything. She searched his eyes, oh God those eyes. The eyes that made her turn to mush. The eyes that made her fall in love with him over and over again. Unfortunately, this time when she looked at them they didn’t shine the way they used to. They didn’t shine the way she wished they would.
“Yeah,” she nodded sadly. “Yeah, after all of that, I still love you.” She spoke softly and stared into his cold blue eyes. “And I’m really sorry for everything.”
“Me too,” Justin nodded sadly as well.
Before they knew what they were doing, their lips had met. They engaged in an all-too-familiar dance. Angela had wrapped her arms around Justin’s neck and hugged herself close to his body.
“What the hell?”
They were interrupted by a voice they both recognized. Justin broke away from Angela and gaped at the door. Blair. She stood there with her jaw dropped and a pained expression on her face. She dropped the bright yellow duo-tang folder she had been holding onto the floor before she turned on her heel and walked out of the house.
“Who the hell was that?” Angela asked, disrupting Justin’s thought.
Justin averted his gaze back to his ex-girlfriend and stared at her. “You need to leave.”
“Justin, we just-”
“Ang,” Justin said firmly but with a hint of defeat to his voice. “Please.”
“Who was that?” Angela asked, standing up. “This is insane. You’re going to make me leave after we… after we made up and…! For…” she couldn’t seem to form a sentence.
“Angela, I don’t have time for this. I have to go and I need you to leave my house.” Justin walked into the foyer and crouched down to look inside of the folder Blair had left on the floor. When he opened it, he saw black and white ‘photos’ that he recognized as ultrasound images and some other information about pregnancy.
