Josh frowned as he danced with a girl at the club. He wondered where Justin was, and he suspected that he knew who his date was. It was no secret that Justin had always had a small thing for Rayna, and Josh had a feeling Justin had found his perfect window of opportunity. He smiled at the girl as the song ended and found Chris at the bar. "I’m going home!” he called over the music. “If you need a ride later, call me!”
Chris nodded. “Okay!” He turned back around and took another swig of his drink as Josh walked off.
When he got home, Josh tried to call Rayna. “…Hey, I’m not home… Leave me a message, and I’ll do my best to call you back as soon as possible, bye!” His hand slammed the receiver down and he cursed. Josh gave a guttural noise as he dialed Justin’s cell phone, and he made yet another whenever he didn’t get an answer. Josh couldn’t believe Justin would do this to him.
Rayna smiled as Justin took her hand when they came out of the movies. He hadn’t acted the way he usually did; he was a different guy all together whenever his friends weren’t around. Granted, Rayna wasn’t fond of the fact he was two people, but it wasn’t that huge of a difference. If anything, Justin was just a normal guy, which she liked.
“Thanks for letting me take you out,” Justin said quietly as they got in the car. “I had a really nice time, and that’s not a lie. I hope you’ll go out with me again sometime.”
She pondered for a minute, before formulating her answer. “I had fun as well, Justin. I think I would enjoy going out with you again, but I don’t want to end up giving you the feeling that I am using you only in order to make Josh jealous or anything. I honestly had a nice time, and you are much different than I thought. I’m not saying I want to jump into anything, I only want to be honest and forewarn you I don’t know what will happen if we continue to go out.”
Justin nodded. “I’m glad to know that it’s not just for your own gain,” he stated. “Because, to be honest, those weren’t my sole intentions in asking you out tonight.”
Rayna thought again for another moment, “I wasn’t sure if it was or not.”
They sat there in an awkward silence for at least two minutes, before Justin spoke up again, “So, um, do you want to go out again on Sunday night?”
“Yeah, that would be nice,” she agreed quietly, just as he pulled into her driveway.
Justin got out of the car and opened Rayna’s door. He walked with her to the door, and stood on the stoop with her. “Good night, Rayna. I hope you have pleasant dreams, and I’ll more than likely see you before Sunday…” he planted a quick kiss on her cheek before disappearing back to his car and driving off.
Rayna stood there for a few seconds, staring after the retreating car. She let out a rather large sigh before letting herself into the house. Her feet carried her systematically to the shower, and then she climbed into bed. It was after midnight, and she was tired. Rayna sighed once more before closing her eyes to sleep.
Josh paced furiously, dialing Justin every ten minutes. He had to find out what was going on. Finally, his call not only went through but was answered.
“Hello?” Justin sounded happy, too happy, Josh thought.
“Where the hell have you been? Or rather, why the hell have you been out with Rayna?”
Justin laughed. “You ditched her, Josh. That makes her open claim. And I moved in. I like her, a lot. You have known that for ages. It was your own fault."
“And you know that I-“
“That you what, Josh? That you had a fling with her and broke her heart? That counts as claim? One would hardly think so. We had fun tonight, Josh. And we’re going to go out again. You lost your chance, and you can’t blame for that in the least bit, and you know it.”
Josh frowned, and cursed loudly. “Dammit Justin! This isn’t fair, and you know it isn’t!” He ran his fingers angrily through his hair as he flung himself down into a chair. “I can’t believe you’d do this to me!”
“Me? Well, Josh, you knew it would happen sooner or later. You lose, get used to it. That’s how it always is and always will be... You losing.” Justin’s smirk was audible as he continued to berate Josh.
“Shut up already!” Josh finally screeched. “I know I did something stupid, okay? But I don’t care. If she is stupid enough to fall for your games, let her fall. Screw it, I’m done worrying about it.” He hung up, and grimaced as he hurled the phone across the room. It hit the wall, and fell apart into pieces. Josh didn’t even notice. He began to drift in his thoughts...
“You’re so cute!” Rayna pinched his cheeks as they sat next to each other at a comedy club.
“I am not,” Josh stuck out his tongue and wrapped her in a tight hug.
“I love you,” she said quietly.
“I love you, too, Sissy,” he kissed her cheek and bonked her lightly on the nose.
Rayna sighed. He would never understand what she meant. He refused to see it, refused to believe it. He thought that she only thought of him as a friend, he had never been more wrong in his life. Never.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, big blue eyes full of concern for his friend.
“Just tired,” Rayna lied. She couldn’t tell him truth, she couldn’t put him through it. He would only feel guilty, and Rayna couldn’t stand the thought of being the reason he would feel that way.
“Do you want to go home?” he asked, peering at her face.
“Yeah...”
“Okay,” Josh stood up and took her hand as they exited the room.
“How stupid could I be?” he asked himself. “I can’t believe it’s all my fault that I have to go through this... Why did I have to be so stupid? What did I do to deserve this... Why didn’t I...” Shaking his head, Josh got up and went to his room. He couldn’t dwell on this, not tonight. Tonight was supposed to be a good night. Hating himself wouldn’t help anything, hating Justin wouldn’t help anything, and God knew he couldn’t hate Rayna no matter how hard he tried.
Number of reviews: 4
Print:
Chapter or Story