He looks over at me and starts snickering again.
“Justin, stop laughing! It wasn’t funny at all!”
“Yeah it was! It was definitely a classic!”
“Yeah, well it was a humiliation to me!” I say frustrated as we walk through the park after our eventful lunch.
“Chillax, girl! It was no biggie!” Justin says.
“Ever use the word chillax in your vocabulary again, I swear I’ll hit you like a crazy maniac.”
“Chil”ow!” Justin yells as I stomp on his foot with my heels.
“Damn, woman! Any harder, those heels probably could have gone right through my foot!”
“Eh, it wouldn’t be your first injury,” I say as I watch him go for a bench.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Sitting down so maybe my foot will feel better.”
“Wimp,” I mutter as I sit down on the bench next to him.
I think back to today’s earlier events. Let’s just say I don’t think I’ll ever show my face at that restaurant again due to my sudden outburst. But I could care less about that. Who was that girl Bryan was with? I would lie if I said I wasn’t jealous, but it must have been a work thing. I hope. But still, curiosity gets the best of me. Then I look at Justin as he examines his foot and can’t help but be jealous of Cameron, too. It’s like I’m stuck in the middle between two men that I can’t get enough of. This sucks.
“Dani, I know the park and its trees are so entertaining to watch, but do you think you could take a break for one second and listen to me?”
I snap back into reality to realize that Justin’s been trying to get my attention, “Yeah?”
“Do you wanna go back to my place?”
Bad idea. Really bad idea. “Okay,” I say as we both stand up and start to walk back to the car. I realize that Justin’s keeping his distance between us.
“Are you afraid of me or something?”
“With those heels, hell yeah! I’m staying away from your feet!”
I laugh as I hear a sound from a bush and see a couple of men who are trying to hide themselves and their cameras.
I walk near Justin and whisper, “I think we need to jolt out of here.”
“Why?” He asks as I see flashes starting to go off.
“Shit,” he mutters as he grabs my hand and we start to walk faster and try to not pay attention.
“Justin! Just one picture!”
“Who’s the lady with you?”
“What happened to Cameron?”
“Is this a new woman, Justin?”
“Come on, Justin!”
We finally reach the car as we get in quickly and leave the park.
Note to self: get a disguise next time I hang out with Justin in public.
“Well that was just great,” I say sarcastically as I enter Justin’s house.
Justin sighs, “I’m sorry, Dani.”
“What are people gonna think, Justin? What am I supposed to say? What’s Cameron gonna say to me when she sees those pictures? I’m sure that’ll be the cherry on top for her!”
“Don’t worry about it, it’ll all be okay,” Justin replies as he starts to head upstairs.
“Where are you going?” I ask as I watch him.
“I was thinking we could chill in the pool for a little. It always calms me down so maybe it’ll help you.”
“Yeah, one problem. I have no swim suit with me!”
Justin shrugs, “Use one of Cameron’s.”
Ew.. “I don’t know, Justin. I feel pretty awkward just using her swim suit.”
“What’s the big deal? She won’t mind.”
“How would you feel if someone just used your stuff while you were gone?”
“I’d have to say that whoever’s using it should feel pretty damn honored,” Justin says with a wink. “So what do you say?”
I sigh and start following him up the stairs, “I’m not promising you that I’ll get in the pool, but sure.”
“You splash me one more time, I’ll kill you.”
“Just get in,” he whines.
“Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t.”
I watch as Justin starts to swim over to the side of the pool where I’m laying on a towel in the sun. I almost fell asleep until he started splashing me.
“You’re such a party crasher,” he pouts.
“It happens,” I say as I try to shrug him off, but his wet arm touches mine as he tries to pull me in the pool.
“Justin,” I say as I struggle to stay away from the edge, “do you realize what consequences you are facing?”
“Hmm educate me.”
Just as I was about to speak, he pulls me more forcefully and I fall on top of him as we sink into the pool. Before we surface, I make sure to dunk him further in the water as I rise to the top, planning another sneaky attack as he comes up.
“Ya know,” he says as he coughs, “I think you could have handled that better.”
I spit the bit of water I had in my mouth at him as he yells teasingly and we both begin to splash each other.
8:32 PM
“So he ended up being a garbage man.”
“Are you serious?”
“Dead serious. My mom said hi to him on purpose one day when he was picking up our garbage.”
“I always knew he was garbage.”
“Justin.”
“What?! I told you he was no good for you! But since you only dated him your junior year, I’ll let it slide.”
“Aw, thanks dad,” I say sarcastically as we both laugh while we’re lying on the grass looking up at the sky.
When we were younger, we always looked up at the stars and talked about anything and everything. We would each take a turn asking each other a question and somehow make the answer outrageous. So that’s what we’re doing right now. Just getting to know each other better and catch up on what’s happened.
“All right, it’s my turn,” I say, knowing exactly what to say. “Do you ever wish you could turn back time and prevent a thing or two from happening?”
He sighs, “Definitely.”
“You don’t have to say what if you don’t want to.”
“No, I do. Even though my mom’s happy now, I wish I could just take the pain that she felt when my parents were in the middle of the divorce. Even though I was too young to understand it, it sucked when I got older. It’s bad enough I’m not home a lot for the holidays, but splitting them? It’s insane.”
“At least you still have that opportunity to do that.”
He looks over at me, “Don’t talk that way. You basically are family, Dani. Especially when you came when we..” he stopped as we both grew uncomfortable.
Just let it die with no goodbyes
Details don’t matter, we both paid the price
“Go ahead, say it. When we were dating,” I say.
Justin sighs, “Yeah. But even after that, you still are. You always came for Christmas after your parents died. You didn’t have to stop after we broke up.”
There’s only one me and you and how we used to shine
“I wanted to though, Justin. I would be too uncomfortable just coming over acting like nothing happened when your family was basically praying that we worked. It would be too strange.”
He grabs my hand, “Maybe we should do it again.”
Baby I must confess, we were bigger than anything
“Justin, how many times do I have to tell you this? It’d be too complicated. I’m already gonna be in enough trouble with Cameron. I don’t need more.”
“Stop thinking about what everyone else will think. Who cares about Cameron?”
“Do you realize you’re engaged?”
Oh they say that you’re in a new relationship
But we both know nothing comes close to what we had, it perseveres
“Screw that. I was basically pressured into all this. We could have still been together-”
“Do you ever listen to me?! You’re the one who made the decision”nobody else made it for you! It’s like you can’t get that through your thick head!” I yell as I stand up and start to leave with Justin following behind me.
“Dani, just wait!”
“I have to go,” I say as I grab my keys and head for the door.
“Hold up!” Justin grabs my wrists and pushes me against the wall which has me now scared. “I’m not the only guilty one here! Sure, I did most of the screwing up in this whole fiasco, but you had your part, too.”
“Justin-”
“No! You have to hear this! You just left me there at the bench on that damned night and never had some kind of contact with me again until now. Personally, Danielle, I thought I’d never have you step foot in this house again. You just walked away that night and never bothered to call or anything when I was hurting, too. But by some crazy miracle, you’re here again. Don’t you see? We were given a second chance. Not a lot of people get that.”
No matter what you go through
We are one, that’s a fact that you can’t deny
I close my eyes and sigh, “Justin, I…it wouldn’t work. There’s Cameron and Bryan and the wedding and”
“Forget about all those things for one moment. Forget about what could happen if we tried this again. Do what your heart tells you, Dani. If I’m not in it anymore, I’ll let this all go and pretend it never happened.”
I can see it in your eyes, you still want it
I think about it. This is all so insane. If we did do this, I could get into so much trouble. I could have quite a few people mad at me. There’s the whole media thing with Justin’s career. But I come down to one fact.
He’s still in my heart.
I look up at him and whisper, “What if this doesn’t work out? I don’t think I can handle all that pain again.”
Tears in my eyes, you know sometimes it’d be like that baby
“Don’t think about it. I don’t want it to happen either. Hopefully this will all work out in the end.”
We both stand silently for a few minutes before Justin speaks up again.
“..What would you do…if I kissed you right now?”
I stand in shock looking at him, “I don’t know..”
“I guess we’ll find out,” he says and suddenly kisses me. The sparks that were there before have now returned as he continues and rests his hand on my cheek.
I’m just speaking from experience
Nothing can compare to your first true love
So I hope this will remind you
When it’s for real, it’s forever, so don’t forget about us
Our kiss gets interrupted as his cell phone starts to ring. He checks to see who it is and ignores the rest of the rings, “It’s Cameron.”
“I should probably go,” I sigh.
“Do you have to?”
“Yeah…Bryan will begin to wonder if I died.”
“Alright.”
I think for a moment, “Justin, I’d love to have what we had before, but I don’t think I can truly get that if we’re both still in another relationship.”
Justin frowns and sighs, “Yeah, I guess so.”
“But nothing ever looses hope. If you decide that Cameron can’t stick around…and if I decide that Bryan can’t stick around, then I can definitely see us in the future together.”
He stands there quietly and nods his head.
“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow or something…bye,” I say as I leave.
Justin sighs, “Bye.”
I listen to the line ring until he answers the phone out of breath, “Hello?”
I raise my eyebrows as I sit on my bed, “Bryan?”
“Oh, hey baby. I was wondering when you’d call.”
“Sorry, I was out a little late tonight…are you okay?”
Bryan stutters, “…Oh yeah..I’m fine! I was just..on the treadmill.”
I get suspicious, “At 11:00 at night?”
“Hey, there’s never a wrong time for someone to exercise.”
“I guess..” I say.
“Oh, I’m sorry Dani, but I gotta go. It’s my other line. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”
This is awkward. “Sure..I guess I’ll talk to you then.”
“Love you, bye,” he says as he hangs up before I get a word in. I sigh and put the phone down on my nightstand as I try to fall asleep.
But I can’t help but wonder if he was really telling me the truth.
----------
Song credit: Don't Forget About Us--Mariah Carey
Number of reviews: 44
Print:
Chapter or Story