Chapter 5
I jogged down the hospital hallway, Chris close on my heels, until I reached Justin’s room. I opened the door, and saw Justin pushing away a nurse.
“I don’t want any water. I’m not thirsty. Get that fucking glass away from me, woman!”
“Justin!” I said, almost embarrassed to be related to him, “Calm down. You need to drink, you’re dehydrated.” I walked further into the room, allowing Chris to walk in as well and shut the door.
“Laney! Chris! Thank god you’re here!” Justin said relieved, putting a hand to his head, “They’ve all been circling me like some kind of hawk and not letting me do anything, or get up or anything.”
“Well she’s the nurse, and he’s the doctor. I think they know best.” I replied, sitting down in a chair next to his bed. He moved around in under the sheets for a moment, before looking up at me.
“Yeah… Yeah… whatever. I guess that just because I’m in the hospital, and I am in oh so much pain, everyone is still going to be mean to me.” Justin said, pouting, with a sarcastic tone in his voice. I just looked at him. There was nothing else I could do. His presence had been so missed by not just me, but everybody, that I missed the regular glow in his face. Though the glow could be directed towards anger sometimes, I missed it, nonetheless.
“What are you staring at, Lane? Do you consider me hot now that I’ve recovered from a horrible accident that shows my incredible manly strength?” Justin asked me, once again with that desperate humor attempt.
“Well Justin, if it was legal and not incredibly sick to consider your brother hot, then I would agree with you, but since laws like that haven’t advanced, and being attracted to your brother will always be sick, then I’m gonna have to say no.” I replied, letting a smirk play on my lips.
“Fine, no sympathy for him who is injured.”
“Never any sympathy for him who is always desperate.”
“Dude, she’s been like this all day.” Chris said, stepping forward.
“Have you been with her all day?” Justin asked, putting a scared look on his face.
“She was getting all depressed in here so-” I covered his mouth before he could get out whatever he wanted to say. I looked to Justin nervously, hoping he didn’t hear what Chris had said.
“Oh, so you missed me, huh?” Justin asked, smiling evilly.
Guess my wish wasn’t answered.
“No… I was just depressed that I had to be stuck here for 3 days.” I replied rolling my eyes. Justin did not need an ego boost.
“Sure. I’m sure there are a hundred of girls outside right now, plus about few more hundred thousand crying over me in the hospital, plus my name all over CNN, MTV, and the 6 o’clock news.”
Well not much has changed. Normally you would think a tragedy like this would give someone emotional problems, but Justin seems to grow a bigger ego out of it. How Justin.
But too bad he had to be right.
A few days later, Justin was released from the hospital, and what a frenzy it caused. It took us about a half an hour to devise a plan to get us out of the lobby safely. The police had to come and stop the girls from barricading down the hospital doors. We eventually slipped out of the side door, since some girls were covering the back door. But once the word got out that Justin had escaped, all the girls made it their mission to not let him get away without an autograph or some piece of him.
By the time we got home at 11:30 in the morning, I was thoroughly exhausted. Justin, though, was in the mood to walk around the house and be loud. “Expressing his unreleased energy” or whatever he called it.
As I laid on the couch, I heard feet pounding around upstairs, music blasting, the phone blaring, the toilet flushing, Justin burping, Justin laughing, the doorbell ringing, the guys running in, everybody giving Justin “love”, more feet pounding upstairs, and everyone yelling at Chris for spilling soda all over the carpet. I felt like the mother of the Brady Bunch. When all the guys left at about 5:30, Justin finally came bouncing the living room, and plopped down next to my feet on the couch. No tiredness or exhaustion being shown on his face or in his eyes, just a pure look of happiness.
He turned to look at me, “So what have you been doing all day, Lane?”
“Lying here listening to you making noise all day.”
Justin laughed, and for just a moment, it seemed as though all of our problems were gone. Our parents weren’t dead, we weren’t always fighting, and Justin wasn’t famous. We were just together…talking.
“We didn’t make that much noise did we?”
“Oh yeah. That much and more.” I replied, giving him a look. A playful one. A rare one. One that normally was in seriousness, rather than good-natured.
“Well, it was nice just hanging out with the guys. Once we got home, I just felt free. Like all of my problems were gone. It felt like we weren’t famous and we were just 5 friends hanging out. I didn’t have to worry about anything.”
It’s so weird how siblings really connect.
“Well I’m glad you had fun.” I said, truthfully. I yawned, and looked back towards the blank T.V.
“Well there’s still time to have more fun”
I didn’t even have to look at him to know there was a mischievous smile on his face.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, honestly not wanting to know.
“I don’t know. Me and you are here, home, at 6 at night, with the whole night ahead of us. It can mean whatever you want.” Justin said.
“So you’re saying you want me to get up and go “have fun” with you doing something other than sitting here and enjoying the peace, and relaxation?”
“Precisely.” he replied. As much as I wanted to just sit here, I knew I couldn’t deny him of having fun. He had sat in the hospital for 3 days after he woke up. He couldn’t do anything except get up to go to the bathroom. I couldn’t just say no.
“Well what do you have in mind to do that would be fun with me?” I asked, curious. Did he really want to hang out with me, and do something “fun”? Normally, I wasn’t his first choice when it came to these ideas.
“I don’t know. A movie fest. Video games. Make a fancy dinner. Watch old tapes. Go swimming. Play pool. Play board games.”
“Well aren’t you just the master of ideas today?” I said, laughing.
“Well when I’m in the mood to do stuff, I’m in the mood to spit out ideas.” Justin said.
“Alright. How about we make a nice dinner, eat it in the living room while we play board games, and watch some movies?” I replied, hoping I could fulfill his energy spurt all in one.
“Did you get smarter while I was gone, Lane? Cause that’s damn good idea!” Justin yelled, as he hopped off the couch and bounded into the hallway.
I sighed, and found the energy to get off the couch myself, and go get ready for a “fun filled night”.
“JUSTIN! That’s cheating!” I yelled, “You can’t buy that!”
“Why not?” he asked innocently.
“Because you don’t have the money to buy it, and you can’t steal it from the bank.”
“I’m not stealing it, I’m borrowing it.” Justin said, trying to slide his way out of losing in Monopoly.
“We’ve never played that way.” I said, making a point. Of all our years playing Monopoly, we said that borrowing from the bank was for wussies. So neither of us ever borrowed from the bank, because the competition between Justin and I was too big to risk to just have access to a few fives from the bank.
“Well, today I feel like asking for help.”
“Yeah right. The Justin I know would NEVER ask for help. Unless it was in a do or die situation. You, mister, just don’t like to lose.” I pointed at him.
“Who does?” he asked, knowing he got me.
I racked my brain for a good comeback or some kind of answer, but unfortunately, I couldn’t think of any. I stuck my tongue out at him, and stood up, grabbing my plate and my glass.
Once I had gotten up and changed into more “fun filled” clothes, consisting of flannels and a t-shirt, I helped Justin make some pasta with sauce. It wasn’t the fanciest thing, but it was a nice change to Chinese takeout or pizza. As we ate, we turned on “School of Rock” and took out Monopoly. It was a basic chill out night anyone could think of. No special clubs, or celebrity friends, no VIP or celebrity access, just me and Justin doing normal stuff.
It was actually quite entertaining to see Justin try and cheat his way out of a board game.
“Ha!” he shouted, as he followed me to the kitchen, “I won! You can’t think of a comeback.”
“Fine. Score: Justin with 1. Laney with- still beating Justin.” I said, putting my plates in the sink, and turning on the faucet. As Justin put his dishes down, he went back in to the refrigerator, and grabbed a container of ice-cream. He scooted past me to the drawers and took a big spoon out.
“So you’re dirtying more dishes?” I asked, still amazed at how much he could eat.
“No. I’m dirtying a spoon.” he yelled from the living room.
Things went back to normal once Justin was back to full-strength. I went back to working, cleaning, and taking crap.
“Laney, what’s this?” I heard Justin ask from the laundry room.
“What’s what?” I replied, wandering to the doorway. He held up my blue jeans in one hand, and a thin envelope in the other.
“It has my name on it.” He looked at my curiously. I walked closer and grabbed the envelope out of Justin’s hand. It was Angela’s note. The one letter I was excited to give to Justin suddenly became a forgotten piece of paper.
“I’m sorry Justin. This was a letter from a fan that I forgot to give to you. She handed it to me at the last minute, so I put it in the car aside from the other stuff, and must have slipped it in my pocket or something. It’s yours.”
“Oh. Alright. I thought you were secretly hiding an obsession with me, and wanted to profess your love to me in a emotionally attached letter.” He said laughing, sticking the letter on the washing machine.
“Justin…” I said, “I’m your sister. Not your lover, your girlfriend your fan, or your secret admirer. YOUR SISTER!” I walked out of the laundry room, shaking my head.
A thought occurred to me, as I was walking away. “Wait…” I said, turning back around to the laundry room, sticking my head back in the doorway.
“Yeah?” Justin asked, folding a t-shirt.
“The girl who gave it to me- Angela, I think- said it was really important you read it, so I told her I would tell you. She seemed really determined.”
“Ok.” He said, not even bothering to look up. I doubted he even heard me, as I left the laundry room for the second time, hoping maybe Justin would see something different, and maybe open the envelope.
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