There was giggling.
That’s the first thing Justin heard as he walked into the house during his lunch break that afternoon. K didn’t giggle. She laughed, chuckled, and on the rare occasion was known to snort. But giggle? Definitely not.
He followed the giggling through the kitchen and into the family room, finding the TV on and a movie playing but no one in the room. Walking around the couch and fully into the room, he nearly tripped over the two giggling bodies that were lying on their stomachs in front of the TV. Body #1 jumped up giddily at his arrival, blonde locks flouncing about as she moved toward him, arms wide open and hug-ready. Body #2 on the other hand, rose sluggishly to her feet, throwing a “Hey” in his direction before heading into the kitchen, from where she asked if anyone wanted a sandwich.
Body #1 shook her freshly dyed blonde head and replied with a “No thanks” before her attention got diverted back to the screen, where men were parading around in skirts and consuming large amounts of alcohol.
Following after Body #2, Justin headed into the kitchen.
“You want one?” She asked, her eyes never leaving the sandwich she was working on.
“What is Britney doing here?”
She shrugged, handing him the finished sandwich. “Watching Alexander.”
“Yes, I can see that. But why?”
“I dunno, maybe because she likes it. It’s definitely not one of Colin’s better movies, but it’s funny. Not sure if it was supposed to be though.”
“No, not why is she watching it. Why is she here?”
"Oh, well, she called and said she was in town and that she thought it would be nice if we could hang." K said, opening the fridge for some extra tomatoes to go on her sandwich. "Did you know she got married?"
"Everybody knows about that. It was all over the news."
"Hmmm." She murmured to herself, putting the finishing touches onto her sandwich. "You are going to eat that, right?"
"Eat what?" He asked, before looking down at his hands and remembering the sandwich. "Oh...yeah."
"Good." She nodded as she started to walk away, not getting very far before she found herself getting wrapped up in his arms
"I know it's my lunch break and all. But I didn't come home ‘cause I was hungry for food." He whispered huskily, his breath kissing her ear.
As his lips grazed just behind her ears, nibbling ever so slightly on her lobe, she pulled away. "Well, we can't do that now." She said; her head nodding back to where Britney obliviously sat in the other room.
"So get rid of her."
"No, that's rude. 'Sides what am I supposed to say? 'Hey, Britney, can you leave...Justin's horny.'"
"Yes!"
She frowned and shook her head at him. "No," she laughed.
"Yes..." he nodded persistently; wrapping his arms around her once more he sang, "All you gotta do is say yes."
"No," she laughed again, shaking her head.
"Yes..." He murmured, licking his lips real slow. "You be sayin' 'No, no, no, no, no.' When it's really, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." He sang, punctuating each 'yeah' with a kiss to her forehead, left cheek, chin, right cheek, and finally mouth. When she didn't pull away, he smirked to himself and sang softly, "Your body's...calling...for me."
"My mind is tellin' me no." She sang back, switching songs as she pulled out of his grasp and began to walk away.
Dropping to his knees, he crawled after her singing, "But my body... " Grabbing onto her leg, he lay on his back and pulled himself between her legs and continued singing. "...but my body's tellin' me yeees!"
She laughed, shaking her leg loose from his grasp. She shook her head a few times, patted the hand of his that had been holding onto her and said, "Be strong. She'll be gone before long."
And with that she turned on her heel and left Justin where he lay on the cold kitchen floor.
Blinking and staring.
He laid there on the floor for a solid minute. Just blinking and staring at the ceiling, wondering when, where, and why K's legs had become harder to penetrate than Fort Knox.
It was like she didn't appreciate him from being the Sex God that he is. Like a body like his just appeared out of nowhere. Like it was just a dime a dozen. During the time span of that minute he lay on the ground, he tried to rewind his mind back to the last time he'd been given the keys to Knox her Fort.
They'd been living together for two weeks now and it had definitely been longer than that. His Id-like loins said it had been months at least. While his more logical mind said it had only been a month at the most.
A month. A month!
They'd never gone that long before. No wonder he felt like a man dying of thirst in a pool full of water. He was dying!
Sex was essential. Right up there with food, water and shelter. In fact, it went: sex, food, water, and shelter. So lack of sex was downright sinful, right? She was depriving him of one of the necessities of life, for no good reason.
He couldn't even think of something stupid he'd done or said recently. He'd been holed up at the studio too much for that lately anyways. Maybe that was it. Maybe she felt neglected.
But how is neglecting me when I am around going to fix that? He thought, his hands resting behind his head now. Women. This is why I'll never understand them.
He sat up then, having decided that, that had to be what was wrong. Rising to his feet, he strode into the family room, finding both of them sitting on the couch now. He slid in between them with a loud sigh.
K glanced over at him, but didn't say anything as her eyes fell back to the screen again.
Several minutes passed in silence before he cleared his throated, loudly, as he leaned back casually, letting his arm drape over the back of the couch, just behind where K was sitting. When he cleared his throat the second time, he got the attention he was looking for”just not from the right person.
"You okay?" Britney asked, eyeing him with concern. "You need some cough drops? ‘Cause I think I might have some in my purse." She said, already opening her purse and rummaging through its contents. "There's this nasty little bug going around..." She rambled on, head still bent in search of the cough drops.
"No, no. That's alright. I'm fine. Don't worry." he said, glaring pointedly at K when he said the last two words.
K still didn't respond, instead she simply removed herself from the situation entirely as she gathered up her plate and headed back into the kitchen.
Practically leaping off of the couch after her, Justin didn't hesitate to follow this time. "What did I do now?" He sighed, watching her back as she moved toward the sink to rinse off the plate she'd been eating off of.
"Who said you did something?" she asked, her back still facing him as she shook off the excess water from the plate before placing it in the dishwasher.
"If I didn't do anything wrong...then why can't we have sex?!?" he asked, not meaning for his voice to come off as whiny as it had.
Laughing at him, she smiled. "Blue, you are just too cute for words sometimes."
"But I wanna be sexy." He pouted playfully, his bottom lip poking out.
"Maybe if you're a real good boy this year, Santa will bring you some sexiness for Christmas."
"And what happens if I'm a real naughty boy instead?" He grinned, pulling her into place in his arms in front of him.
"Guess you'll never know though." She said, slipping out from under his grasp. "You're too nice."
"Too nice." He scoffed. "Sheit, I put the bad in badass."
She couldn't help but laugh at that”shaking her head at him as she went.
"I can be bad." He said to himself once he was alone again. Hell, I can be the baddest if I wanted to. He thought, before checking the time and finding that his lunch hour was up already. Scurrying toward the door in a mad dash, he stopped mid-way”slowed his strolled down to an amble and strutted out the door a la George Jefferson style. Can't nobody tell me, I'm not bad.
Several hours later, Justin strode back into the house, still on some Michael Jackson "Bad" type shit. He had every intention of laying his pimpin' down so smooth like that she wouldn't even realize that she was getting charmed right out of her pants (and by the time she would realize it, she'd be too deep in it to care) but he made the mistake of glancing over K's pocketbook calendar that lay open on the dresser in the bedroom.
All the days for the probational month were clearly marked with it ending on the thirty first day where the word "freedom" was scrawled across it.
His confidence sank down the length of his six foot frame, before draining out of his toes. He stared at the calendar for a long time hoping after his next blink the words might change. Hoping that it was all written as a joke, though it definitely didn't feel like one.
But he shook it off, trying to get his mind back to where it had been prior to spying the calendar. Undressing, he rushed into the bathroom to take a nice relaxing shower.
Too bad the shower time only gave his mind more time to pick at the calendar’s meaning.
Why was she in such a rush to leave? Was there someone else she was rushing back to? Was it...
Nate?
He jumped out of the shower at that thought and without grabbing a towel or anything, he marched back into the bedroom and crawled into the bed and proceeded to shake K out of her sleep.
"I saw your calendar," was the first thing he greeted her with as soon as her eyes opened.
"My what?" She groaned, frowning at him in confusion as she wiped the sleep from her tired eyes, her mind still in her dream world of fat waddling ladies and crying doctors.
"Your calendar." he said, pointing to where it sat on the dresser. "I saw it."
"Oookay," she nodded, still confused as to where all this was leading. "What time is it?" She asked, glancing at the clock that displayed the time as being two-sixteen in the morning. "Justin, do you realize what time it is?" She said, glaring at him now as her frown deepened into a scowl. "And do you realize you're naked, dripping wet and soaking the bed?!"
He glanced down at himself as if he hadn't noticed those things already.
"Justin, are you drunk?" She sighed. "Did you and Pharrell get drunk, again? Did he dare you to do this?" She exhaled loud with frustration again, rubbing her head as if it was suddenly beginning to cause her pain. "Please tell me you didn't drive home like this." She said, her hands gesturing to his naked and glimmering wet body.
"I didn't..."
"You walked?!" She exclaimed, cutting him off and throwing her hands up.
"No." He sighed, holding his own head for a moment. "And I'm not drunk."
She nodded and laid back down into the bed again, pulling the cover over her head.
"K..." he started, before she cut him off.
"I don't want to hear it. Cause if you're not drunk, then you've gotta be on something." She said. "And I don't wanna know."
"I'm not drunk. I'm not 'on something.'" He said, staring at her covered head. "Are you even listening to me, K?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"I'm trying to tell you that I saw your calendar."
"I think you're already past trying, J. I heard you when you said it the first two times." She said, sitting up now and throwing the covers off of herself.
"Where are you going?" he asked, watching her stomp over to the bathroom.
"I'm getting a towel to dry you off before you catch cold ‘cause apparently you don't have sense enough to do it for yourself." She said, disappearing into the bathroom. "Here." She said, tossing the towel at his head.
"You aren't going to dry me off yourself?" He grinned.
"It's two-something in the morning. You woke me up talking nonsense and getting the bed all wet...you're lucky I haven't hurt you."
“It’s not nonsense…I saw your calendar.”
“And?”
“And I saw that you have the days marked for when you’ll be here and when you’re leaving.” He said, finally getting more to the point.
“And?”
“And I want to know what’s up with that?”
Shrugging, she climbed back into her spot on the bed. “Probational month.”
“Don’t start that again.” He said, his brow rippling into a frown.
“Fine, don’t make me start that again. And I won’t.” She said, sinking into the bed now as she pulled the covers over her head.
Pulling the covers back enough to reveal her face again, he said, “But why are you so…anxious to leave?”
“Probational month.”
“Do you not like it here?”
“Probational month.” She sighed, her back still facing him.
He watched her for a moment, watched the curve of her spine and the way it molded into her side of the bed. Her side of the bed. She had a side in his bed”didn’t she see that she belonged there? After awhile he asked, “Did I do something?”
“Probational month.” She said without a moment’s hesitation, pulling the covers back over her head again.
“Is there something I’m not doing?” He asked, yanking the sheets completely off of her this time”far enough that her perfectly onion-shaped bottom came into view and nearly brought a reminiscent tear to his eye. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten to play with his old friend.
Sitting up, she reached for the blankets. “Probational month.”
“What do you want me to do?” He asked, keeping the sheets out of her reach by wrapping them around himself.
She stared him down with a frown for a long moment. “Probational month.”
“Is that all you’re going to say?” He asked, clearly frustrated and now tangled in the sheets.
Allowing the corners of her mouth to glance upwards, she said, “Pro-ba-tion-al month.”
“Four syllables…interesting.”
“Yeah…”
“Yeah…” sighed out of him before he added, “I don’t want you to leave. I like you being here. I want you to be here. I ne---”
“Don’t bother finishing that cliché thought, I’m perfectly capable of filling in the blank myself.”
“You and me…”
“We’re meant to be.” She rolled her eyes.
He sighed. “You and I…”
“Are one. Or…for a random song lyric reference, I could have said, ‘both love…what you and I spoke of.’ But that doesn’t make a lot of sense, so I’ll go with my first response.”
“Is that the ‘Remedy’ guy?”
“Yes and his name is Jason Mraz.”
“And now that we’re completely off subject, I---”
Cutting him off, she said, “Think you should stay with me…don’t go, we’re good together. Besides you don’t like where you’re living…why not move in with me? He said. Then after taking a moment to think she responded with, ‘Pro---”
“…ba-tion-al month.” He said, finishing her sentence. “Yes, I know. But the whole point of having it be a probational month is so you can figure out if you could ever like being here. If this is where you want to be.”
“I know that. I know where I want to be.”
“And here isn’t it?”
“I…”
“Well that’s better than saying ‘probational month.’”
“You and me…you and I…” she sighed, blowing out a long frustrated breath of air. “I don’t even know, J. We’re just different you know? You’re a star, and I’m…just made of star stuff. You know the universal kind that the galaxy is made of. The general, run of the mill star stuff.”
He nodded, remembering his lessons from Astronomy class enough to know that. “But we’ve always been different though.”
“I know, but it catches up with everybody eventually. And maybe us living together is our catch. So when I go back…”
“‘When’ not even ‘if’?”
“Yes, when. When I go back…”
“Wait, you’re acting as if when you go back…you and me…you and I…” He trailed off, unable to finish the thought.
“Won’t be?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m not saying that.” She said with a shake of her head. “But we won’t be…the way you’re used to now.”
“Obviously, but doesn’t mean that we can’t have our happily ever after. Eventually.”
“When is anything ever happily ever after…aside from the movies?”
“Why can’t we try?”
“You always did say in those teeny-bopper magazine interviews that your girl would have to be an optimist…which makes perfect sense why you’re with me.” She laughed, but her laugh didn’t sound happy at all. It was sad, pathetic almost. She sighed before taking a deep breath. “I’m going to be leaving, it’s bound to happen sooner or later.”
“And you’d rather it be sooner than later?”
“I’m not necessarily saying that and before you ask what I am saying then…I don’t know.” He opened his mouth as if to speak. Holding up her hand, she cut him off. “Whatever profoundly romantic thought you were about to wow me with is going to have to wait.”
“Why?”
“Cause I think I’m gonna…” she trailed off, her face scrunching up in pain.
“Think you’re gonna what?” he asked, watching her with concern, not knowing what to do but wanting to do something.
“I think I’m gonna…” She leaped up from the bed and started to run. He didn’t hesitate to follow her. As soon as she got into the bathroom she closed the door behind her. But it was only seconds later that Justin arrived and immediately opened it again, to see her leaning over the toilet.
“Puke.” she sighed, flushing the toilet and scooting away from it but never rising to her feet as she wiped her mouth with toilet paper.
“You coming down with something?” He asked, softly, brushing the stray strands of hair away from her face.
“Probably just the flu.”
Eyeing her for a moment in silence, he nodded. “Yeah, probably. It’s been going around.”
Not liking how closely he was watching her, K forced herself to her feet with a soft groan. “I think I’m gonna head to bed now.”
“Want me to get you anything?”
“A settled stomach would be nice.”
“I don’t think the 7/11 carries those anymore.”
“Damn.” She laughed. He always did know how to make her laugh or smile when she didn’t want to. “How about just you then? You think the 7/11 carries that?”
“Normally, no. But for you…anything’s possible.” He smiled, ending his sentence with a wink.
“Anything’s possible, huh? What about that stomach then?”
“Me, yes. Stomach, no.”
Smiling, she sighed. “Damn.” Eyeing him approvingly, she said, “Well, I guess you’ll have to do then. C’mon let’s go.”
When K didn’t move, he didn’t either. He just stood there, staring her down. “What are you waitin’ on…a written invitation? Let’s go to bed.”
He smiled, before turning to leave. She listened to him taking those few steps away from the bathroom and toward the bedroom. Listened as he realized she wasn’t following and began to retrace his steps.
Seeing him reappear at the entry of the door, K smiled slyly. “I think you forgot something.”
“What?”
“Me, silly.”
“What?”
Poor Justin, so young…so dumb. So very dumb. She thought with a small smile gracing her face. “What, you didn’t think I was going to walk there on my own, did you?”
He gently scooped her up and into his arms, her body immediately cradling into its usual spot against his chest”his warm solid chest that she hadn’t been this close to in awhile. She noticed the slow steps he took as if he too remembered they hadn’t been this intimate in a long time and was trying to make this moment last. But as much comfort as she found in his arms, the second he’d laid her down onto the bed, she was crawling over to the farthest side of it. Though this didn’t stop Justin from following and wrapping her in his arms, but he did hesitate for a moment as thoughts of the calendar and Nate flashed briefly through his mind.
Silence opened its mouth and effortlessly swallowed the room whole.
“I love you.” Fell out of his mouth as a leaf does from a tree branch after the wind’s urgings”making its wavering descent in her silence. The leaf of words landed and still she said nothing. Nothing at all.
"Do you think that a relationship can really last in a fickle fackle society like ours?" She blurted out randomly, rolling over to face him. "I mean, in the long run. A cross country length run, where endurance and stamina is needed to take you past the passion of the sprints. Do you think a relationship can really make it to shuffle board, bingo, teeth in a glass of water, and sagging, drooping gravity-worn bodies anymore?"
"Where is all this coming from?"
"I dunno." She sighed, picking at the sheet that lay between them. "I was just thinking about Barbie and Ken."
"Barbie and Ken?"
"Yeah, you know their marriage didn't last. For fifty years they'd been together and then...BAM one day it's over. And they're plastic, the dream team couple...if they can't last..."
"Are you serious?" He laughed. "Are you seriously comparing a real life relationship to a failed doll marriage?" He chuckled, throwing his head back with rolling laughter this time.
"Yeah, I'm serious." She frowned, playfully shoving him in the shoulder. "Barbie is the epitome of woman. She can do everything. She's like Oprah, only plastic, white, and with unrealistic body proportions. She has everything, you know what I mean? And it still didn't work."
"They're dolls, K."
"And it still didn't work." She said; frowning at him as his laughter registered in her ears again. "J, I'm serious."
"Well, when you become a plastic blonde with gravity defying boobage and tattooed on underwear, then I'll give you a serious answer on this."
"How do you know that she has tattooed on underwear?"
"I, well, I-I..." He stammered. "My GI Joes got lonely sometimes...and I..."
Laughing, she shook her head at him. "Shut up, Blue." She sighed, rolling over to him and laying her head down on his chest, tucked just under his chin. “I love you, too.” She whispered, finally letting her leaves mingle with his.
