AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry it took me so long to update and that I haven't responded to your reviews for the last chapter yet. My computer has been down for about a week and a half and then I got really busy with school work. Hopefully I'll be able to update again next weekend but it all depends on how much work I end up with. So thank to all of you who reviewed and/r read the last chapter--I really appreicate it. Hope you like this update!! :)
Chapter 45: When the Shit Hits the Fan….Duck
(Justin's POV)
“Come ‘ere.” She practically falls into my open arms. Her hands latch behind my neck and mine find their way around to press into her back. I kiss her cheek and press her body as close to mine as humanly possible.
The poor thing’s had a rough day and an even rougher night. Elli went to that police banquet thing with her mom and Steve and guess who was there? Officer Butler”the guy that pulled us over earlier and nearly scared Elli to death. He recognized her and even remembered her name. To make a potentially long story short, Officer Thomas Butler went to talk with Steve after Elli told him whom she came with. She said that they were talking and kept pointing and looking in her direction. She quickly found her mom and told her that she was bored and was going to head over to Liz’s early. She’s supposed to be spending the night with Liz but came here to me instead.
I had just gotten back home from promotional meetings with my managers literally ten minutes before she showed up. I could tell the moment I saw her distressed face that something was up. I’ve tried to comfort her and tell her that everything is going to work out fine but it’s really hard to convince her when I don’t really believe it myself. Once her mom finds out about us it’ll all be over and there’s really nothing I can do about that.
“He’s gonna tell my mom and then I’m never gonna be able to see you again.” She cries into my shoulder, muffling her words against my shirt. “I can’t not see you again Justin.”
“Shhh,” I sooth, brushing a hand over her hair, “Just try to relax and not think about that right now.” A small whimper escapes her lips. “Come on, follow me.”
I pull back from our embrace and take one of her hands and begin dragging her tired body to the stairs. She follows obediently up the stairs without asking a single question or offering a word of protest. She looks really beautiful by the way. Elisha did a great job of getting her ready tonight. I can tell that she’s uncomfortable though in her dress and makeup and perfect hair. I stop in front of my bed and instruct her to sit down and wait right there.
“Where are you going?” She calls after me as I retreat from her towards the bathroom. I simply hold up my index finger and keep on moving. After a few minutes of preparing the bathroom with the scatterings of as many vanilla scented candles that I can find and drawing a nice hot bubble bath my work is done. I head back into my bedroom and find Elli sprawled out on my bed staring blankly at the ceiling.
“Ell,” She lifts her head just enough to look up at me but makes no motion to move any further. I offer a small smile and reach for her hand to pull her to a position in which she’s sitting up straight. Catching a glimpse of her very uncomfortable matching black high heels, I skim my hands down her legs, beginning at her knees, until I reach her stocking covered feet. I keep my eyes on hers as I carefully remove her shoes. She lets out a small, unexpected moan when I grasp one of her feet in the palm of my hand. I chuckle to myself and begin to gently massage the bottoms of her feet. She moans and groans with every pressing of my fingers and even grasps the white comforter of my bed with her hands.
“You’ve gotta stop.” She pleads and I look up at her strangely. She grins sheepishly, “It feels too good. I can’t take it.”
“I’ve got something even better for you.” I prompt, pulling her to a standing position. She tucks herself under one of my arms as I usher her to the candle lit bathroom.
“Oh, Justin,” She gasps; one of her hands finding my stomach while the other remains wrapped around my back. I watch with a smile spread on my face as her eyes drink in the room. I must say that I’m quite proud of myself for this; how f**king awesome of a boyfriend am I? “This is so sweet.”
“You need to relax.” I say with my lips grazing her temple as I speak. She turns to me with a sweet smile and reaches up on her tiptoes and presses her lips to mine. A grin takes over my face the instant her lips touch mine. I love that she feels comfortable enough to initiate a kiss now; we’ve come a long way since we first met. “You take as long as you need alright. I’ll just hang out and watch some TV.” I say after we pull apart.
“Okay.” She giggles, stepping away from me and brushing her hand across the mound of bubbles nearly spilling over the tub. “I can’t remember the last time I took a bubble bath.”
We both laugh and at the same time the phone rings. I roll my eyes at the interruption but start towards my room anyway. Elli waves cutely as I close the door and I wave back. She really is adorable.
“Yeah.” I answer into the phone, silently praying that it is not my mother on the other line. She’ll give me ten tons of grief for that greeting, or lack there of.
“Hey man,” Trace sighs and I know instantly that something is wrong. The last thing I need right now is more bad news. “I’ve got some shitty news.”
“What is it?” I ask although I’m sure I don’t really want to know.
“Are you sitting down?”
Jesus, is it really that bad? “Spit it out Trace.”
“The press knows about Elli and they’ve got pictures.” He spews quickly, like the words are acid on his tongue.
I fall back onto the edge of my bed in shock. This is f**king impossible. We were so careful. I never took her anywhere besides for ice cream and out on my boat and that was just once and we weren’t even together then. I mutter a few obscenities into the phone though they were meant more for me than Trace.
“I know,” He sighs, sounding nearly as upset about this news as I am. “Johnny called, f**king screaming at me and asking me a shit-load of questions. They know her name and everything man. Even what school she goes to.”
Shit, shit, shit! God this is beyond bad. I lean forward, leaning over my knees and holding the top of my skull with my free hand. I don’t know what to do with this information. Typically if the press found out about a girlfriend I would be pissed initially, but in the end I would get over it and figure out the right time to present the girl to the press officially before the pictures made it to print. This is completely different. If the press knows about Elli’s school then they sure as hell know how old she is. This news just really tops off the night now doesn’t it?
“Johnny says that he’s working with the guys that took these pictures to try to get them to hold off on taking them to the press. He’s gonna have to pay them a f**king lot of money.” Trace continues on. “He wants you to call him right away.”
“I can’t deal with this shit right now Trace.” I hiss, suddenly finding myself on the verge of tears. This is all falling apart. I don’t want to add to Elli’s turmoil by unloading this on her. I’ve gotta take the burden of this load for myself. “I think Steve knows about me.”
“F**k,” Trace swears. “I guess when the shit hits the fan it really hits hard doesn’t it?”
~*~*~*~
(Elli’s POV)
I have never been more relaxed in my life. The bath was nice and hot when I first got in and the bubbles were big and sudsy and the candles and little aroma beads smell of soothing vanilla and lavender. Oh and the tub has Jacuzzi jets; how awesome is that! I only wish the water would have stayed warmer longer and the bubbles wouldn’t have disappeared so quickly. I should get out now so that I don’t catch a cold or something like that.
Carefully I grasp the edge of the tub and stand on my feet. I lift my right foot first, shaking off the excess water before stepping out onto the white bathroom rug and then doing the same with my left foot. After quickly drying myself off with a towel that smells much like Justin, I suddenly realize that I have not clothes to change into besides the dress I was wearing earlier. I really don’t want to put that thing back on. I can’t walk around in a towel. My eyes land on a sky blue cotton robe hanging on the back of the door. There’s no doubt in my mind that it belongs to Justin and I don’t think that he’ll mind if I borrow it.
This smells even more like Justin than the towel. Is it terrible that I thinking about the fact that Justin has probably worn this exact garment over his body after stepping out of the shower? I’ve found that I think about him in….uh…impure ways a lot more lately. That kind of scares me, not that I would ever act on any of those thoughts and fantasies. I’m just not used to thinking about anyone that way.
Shaking away my dirty thoughts I knot the tie of the robe and quickly pull my wet hair up into a ponytail. I glad to have all that makeup off and have my hair back to normal. I really hate dressing up like that; I don’t feel like myself. Walking to the large mirror over the double sink, I notice how different I look. I’m not the same girl I was before I met Justin and I’m not sure how to feel about that. On the one hand I’m ten times more confident then I ever was, but then again all I ever seem to do anymore is lie to my mom.
I won’t be lying to her anymore after tonight I’m sure. Steve will tell my mom about everything and then she’ll forbid me to ever set foot in this house again. There will be no more Trace, Elisha, or Justin. I’ll go back to way things used to be where I never left the house and the only time I ever defied my mother was when I suck sugary cereal into the house to eat for breakfast instead of the healthy stuff she insists on. She’ll be so disappointed in me and may very well never trust me again; I can’t really say that I would blame her. I’m a terrible daughter.
I need to stop thinking about this”if I don’t then I’m gonna start crying and I won’t be able to stop. I need to just enjoy tonight with Justin because it just may be the last I ever see of him. Taking a deep breath I step away from the mirror and make my way out of the bathroom and over to Justin.
“Hey,” He smiles softly, sitting up in his bed. He pats the spot next to him and I obediently trot over to him and bounce up to sit next to him. “How was the bath?”
“Wonderful.” I laugh happily still trying to break myself from my depressing thoughts. He picks up one of my hands to examine my fingertips.
“You’re all wrinkled.” He teases, his eyes crinkling as he smiles. He kisses each of my fingers sweetly and ends with the center of my palm.
“How long was I in there?”
He drops my hand and turns on his side, away from me to look at the clock on his nightstand. “Only about an hour and fifteen.” He says once he turns back to face me.
“It didn’t feel like that long.” I say with widened eyes. I can’t believe I was in the tub that long. I move extend my legs but they get caught in the length of the cotton fabric of the robe. I kick at the fabric angrily and embarrassingly. “Sorry I took so long.” I say, still kicking. Why do I have to be so ungraceful?
“Don’t worry about it. You needed it.” He assures, pulling me to sit closer. He helps me to readjust my legs so that I can lean against him with my head resting on his shoulder. His arm automatically wraps around my shoulder and the other latches on to mine that was sitting on his stomach.
“What am I gonna do?” I whisper after a few minutes of soothing silence. “He’s probably telling my mom right now or he already has and she’s on her way to go get me from Liz’s house to kill me.”
His fingers stop playing with mine and lace through them instead. I wait for him to give me the answer to solve my catastrophe, but the only sound I hear from him is his steady breathing and the pounding of his heart. For a moment I think he’s asleep but then he starts to stir beneath me. I sit up and push myself up to lean against the headboard and he does the same. Why do I suddenly have the feeling that he’s about to add to my stress?
“What’s wrong?” I ask hesitantly, not so sure that I really want to hear what he has to say.
“Nothin’ babe,” He answers smoothly. “I was just”uh”trying to think of”uh”what you’re going to tell you’re mom.”
I nod my head though I don’t quite believe him. I feel like he’s hiding something from me. “What if I never get to see you again?”
His eyes find my teary ones and he holds my gaze, unfaltering. He cups my jaw in his hand, rubbing his thumb over my cheekbone soothingly. Instead of answering me he lowers his head and covers my lips with his. The feeling of his velvety soft lips takes over my senses and I nearly forget all of my worries.
I think I love him. I know that I love everything about him and how he makes me feel. I love how safe I feel in his arms and how, still, just a single touch or even sometimes a look makes my stomach do flip-flops. He always knows just the right thing to say or do to makes me feel a hundred times better and I really can’t imagine not having him in my life. I don’t want to imagine not seeing or hearing for him everyday.
I kiss Justin back with a new passion inside of me that I never knew existed. I’m in love with him and I want him to feel that in every way possible.
TBC......
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