Then there was his mom. She was on the trip with them too, but he hadn't seen her lately. She must have been doing a lot of work. As close as he was to his mom, he couldn't talk to her about girls. That was what a dad was for and unfortunately his dad was in Tennessee. The only 2 people left were JC and Deanna. He wasn't sure he wanted to talk to them because whatever he told them, Deanna would enviably repeat to Emily. Wait, that's just what he wanted. For Emily to know what happened. If Deanna told her what really happened, then she would believe her. There was about a slim to none chance that Emily would believe Justin.
He slowly picked up the phone and dialed Emily's number to her dorm since that was the only place they would be. He heard some laughter as the phone picked up and heavy breathing. He sighed at the fact that it couldn't have been him and Emily doing the laughing and the heavy breathing. If only Lance and Hallie never came over. Lance was definitely going to need to do some explaining. Justin didn't think he ever was going to forgive Lance, and not even a chance of forgiving Hallie. Justin was so lost in thought he didn't even realize someone had picked up the phone.
"Hello.....Hello.........Is anyone there?......Hey asshole, stop making prank calls!" I stated into the phone. Just as I was going to hang up a voice came on.
"Hi Deanna...." Justin said so quietly that I could barely hear him. He sniffed his nose and it sounded like he was crying.
"Justin what's wrong? Where's Emily?" I sympathetically replied. There's nothing that could have made Justin so upset than to have something wrong with Emily.
"How'd you know it was about her?"
"Justin if your upset you wouldn't call me unless you didn't have Emily to talk to."
"Oh yea. Right." Before he had a chance to reply any further, I asked him once more where Emily was. "Well, right now she's somewhere with Lance." he barely got it out when Deanna screamed at him.
"What?? What do you mean she's with Lance? Justin what did you do to her?"
"Look it wasn't my fault ok, but I kissed Hallie." He said guiltily.
"You did what?????? How can that not be your fault? You jerk!" I was so angry at him. I almost hung up when he started explaining. I guessed I owed him an explanation.
"We were in my room when Lance and Hallie came over. Then Lance told Emily he wanted to talk to her alone so they went in the hall. While they were out there Hallie forced herself on me and kissed me just when Lance pushed Emily back into the room. The next thing I knew I got punched, screamed at, and they were gone. Then I kicked Hallie out." He managed to get out in almost one breath. I felt kind of relieved that he hadn't done it on purpose and it wasn't his fault. I was also mad that one of Emily's friends would do this to her.
"Ok look Justin. She's not here right now, but when she does come home, I'll ask her side of it. It'll all work out it'll just take some time. Emily's not good at forgiving easily. Ever since...... well anyways bye Justin and you'll be ok. Give it sometime." I hung up the phone before he could ask any questions. I can't believe I almost let it slip. I turned around and saw JC staring at me. Before, I could say anything JC opened his mouth.
"What happened with Emily?" he questioned. I quickly explained what had happened using Justin's story, JC just nodding his head. When I was done, we had nothing to do but to wait for her to come home. I wrapped my arms around JC's neck and we finished what we had started.
Emily's POV -- Lance's car
The whole ride home was a blur. The incident kept playing over and over in my head as tears streaked my face. The slight hum of Lance's car was the only sound besides my sniffles. The radio was off and it was at a silence. Lance was also silent except inside he was jumping with joy. This was exactly what he wanted. When we finally made it to my dorm, Lance pulled up right by the door. I wanted to get out and run to my room and cry forever, but something told me not to. Not realizing that Lance was leaning closer and closer to me, I turned to him to say thanks for the ride. Instead my lips met his. To my relief, I felt nothing. I didn't feel the shivers, the constant energy between us, like I did with Justin. As I thought more and more about Justin's kisses, I let myself melt into Lance's lips pretending Justin was with me. When we broke apart, Lance had this smile on his face that told me he had felt something in the kiss. I couldn't take it. I opened the door and ran up to my room. The flights of stairs felt like air as I flew up them.
When I reached my room, I knew Deanna and JC were in there still. I slid down the back of the door hitting my *N Sync bulletin board/ dry erase board with my back causing it to fall with me. I picked it up and read the message on it. I felt the tears start to fall as I read the message Justin had written me on that first night. My eyes traveled back and forth between the message and his face. How could he do that to me? And with one of my friends? The tears landed on the message causing it to smear and slowly melt away. Just then the door opened and I fell backwards into the room dropping the board and catching myself with my hands. Deanna and JC quickly pulled apart from their last kiss of the night and helped me up.
I ran straight to my bed. I didn't feel like talking to them. Well, I didn't feel like talking to JC. I think Deanna figured that and said her goodbyes to him. I heard the door shut and her foot steps begin to get louder as they got closer to me. I felt her sit down next to me on the bed as I turned the other way to hide my tears.
"Justin called....." she started to say something, but I cut her off. I didn't want to hear it.
"I don't care what he had to say. I never want to talk to him again." I cried. It was never going to work though. Deanna knew me too well. She knew that I wouldn't let him go with out letting him talk, but she also knew how hard it was for me to forgive people. What she didn't know was that I kissed Lance. I was scared that Justin would have the same reaction I did.
"Come on Emily. You know you can't stay mad at him. It wasn't his fault." she said trying to calm me down. I sat up in the bed and faced her.
"Not his fault? What are you talking about? I walk in the room and he's got his tongue shoved half way down her throat." I screamed at her then fell back down to my pillow and started sobbing again.
"Did you even let him explain?" she asked. I shook my head in my pillow. " Then how can you know what happened for sure?"
"I don't know. But what he did is not the only reason I don't want to talk to him. It's what I did." I said silently. Deanna gave me a blank stare as I turned around so I was facing her again. "I did the same thing." The tears were rushing out of my eyes now and tears were staining my shirt, the pillow, and the bed.
"Wait a sec. What did you do exactly?" she asked in a worried tone.
"Well I didn't do it exactly, but I let it happen."
"EMILY what did you do?"
"I kissed Lance ok?" I shrieked. I got up off the bed and ran to the bathroom. I slammed the door shut and locked it. I sat on the floor crying. Deanna knew she shouldn't bother me, so she left me alone. I finally cried myself to sleep on the cold bathroom floor.