Lifting an eye , JC viewed the room to see the faces of the other. The smile melted off of his face and slowly diminished to a frown when he saw the unexpected. Swallowing the look that Deanna had on her face, it had been months since he had seen it. He had forgotten what it was like to see her every day.
Time was taken away from him because before he could even drop his hands from around Ves's waist, Deanna was pushing her way through the crowd in the room and out into the hall. It all happened in a matter of a few seconds, though it felt as if he'd been standing there for hours. All of a sudden he felt weak, like he couldn't stand anymore. He gracefully let go of Vesteva and slid over the bed across from two other people. "Go after her Chasez, don't let her run away from you like that..." JC thought, but couldn't make himself get off of the bed. In the heat of the moment, he didn't even realize he was staring straight at Emily. Emily shook her head back and forth, mumbling something to herself before she got up off the bed and ran after Deanna.
Recollecting the incident that just played in front of her, Emily was dazed and confused. When the door of the room slammed and a picture frame glazed itself across a desk, Emily slapped herself on the forehead and began her journey. "This is impossible. It has to be a dream." Emily thought to herself as she made her way into the hall. Without even looking where she was going, Emily escaped the small dorm quickly, though a strong force held her back from getting two inches. Her light body was then flown, bracing herself for the impact of the cold floor. "Please don't let it be who I think it is..."she pleaded, closing her eyes, not wanting to look up. Emily peeked out of little slits in her eyes to see exactly who she pictured in her mind. Not acknowledging the hand he had lent out, she scampered up to her feet looking around for Deanna.
"Which way did she go?" Emily asked quietly, feeling almost shy to be talking to him again. Justin pointed down the hall to the left and Emily followed down the hall. She heard a couple of sniffs coming from around the corner. Emily slowly walked around the corner to see Deanna sitting on a chair, her head in her hands. Emily just crouched down and put her arms around Deanna, feeling everything her friend was feeling. The two girls sat there, in an embrace, without saying anything, but fully understanding each other.
"What just happened?" Vesteva asked, more confused than ever. She glanced towards Abby, who just shrugged in return while setting the picture frame in it‘s original place. Ryan was sitting on the bed, not saying a word, not understanding anything.
"I think I'm going to go look for Emily." Ryan finally said, walking towards the door. Justin told him where to go, pointing down the same hallway he had just shown Emily. Ryan took off in a jog as Justin watched him disappear around the corner. Silently, Justin crept inside the dorm for the first time, his eyes resting on Abby who was standing leaning against her dresser.
"Does someone want to maybe, if its not too much trouble, explain what's going on here?" Abby expressed, hinting a note of sarcasm in her voice. Justin took a seat next to JC on the bed, not knowing where to start. What was he supposed to say? "That's my girlfriend, we never really broke up?" Justin laughed at himself. This was a disaster. Finally, JC lifted his head slightly.
"Deanna is, well was, my girlfriend. We went out during the summer." JC explained, quietly, forcing out his words. Justin nodded, hoping to hint to Abby that he had also gone out with Emily. JC saw the anger form in Vesteva's eyes, so he tried to defend himself a little more. "But this was in the summer, way before I met you. She means nothing to me anymore." JC spit out, knowing that everything he had just said was a lie. They had lost touch, but that didn't mean he ever stopped thinking about her. It wasn't possible for Deanna to mean nothing to him.
"Thanks a lot JC. Now I know exactly how you felt during the summer. Was I just some sort of a fling?" a voice boomed from the hallway. "Why does everything I say have to be wrong?" JC thought to himself, before glancing at the door way. He saw Deanna's tear streaked face standing there with Emily and another guy holding Emily's hand. "Abby, I don't think we'll be doing anything tonight. I'll see you in class. I'm going home." Deanna turned and walked out of the room and down the hall to the elevators. Emily whispered something to the guy standing with her and he walked away following Deanna. She walked in calmly, facing Justin and JC with as much confidence as she could put in at the moment.
"Justin? Can I....um...talk to you? In the hall?" Emily squeaked out. He looked up, into her eyes, and nodded. As soon as he looked in her eyes, he remembered the day they said goodbye, last summer. He would never forget that. Emily walked out into the hall, far enough away from the door, where the people inside couldn't hear them. Instantly, she pulled him in for a hug. Justin didn't resist, wrapping his arms around her, while she buried her head in his chest.
"It's really great to see you again." Emily commented as soon as they pulled away. Justin nodded, not knowing what to say. "Well, this wasn't really the way I ever pictured us meeting up again." Emily chuckled to herself. Justin cracked a smile.
"I have to admit, I never expected to find you in Abby's room." Justin responded back. The two talked for a little while about everything that they had been doing. Emily shared that Ryan and she had been dating for a little while, and even though Justin also said he was kind of dating Abby, he couldn't help but feel a little bit of jealousy. It would have never struck him that out of Deanna and Emily, that Emily would be more calm about this whole situation than Deanna. After about 10 minutes, Emily said she had to go catch up to Deanna and Ryan. She told him the name of the hotel she was staying at and that they should get together sometime, while they are still here.
"Tell Chris, Joey, and Lance that I say hi for me." Emily shouted when she was half way down the hall. Justin nodded, walking back into Abby's room.
Emily went down the elevator to see Deanna and Ryan sitting on a little couch that was in front of the elevator on Deanna's floor. Ryan jumped up when he saw her, not looking very happy. "How about telling me what this is all about?" Ryan exploded. Emily had never heard him raise his voice this much. Emily exchanged glances with Deanna, who just gave her a blank stare.
"There's nothing to explain. Justin is an old friend who I haven't seen for a long time. That's all it is. Emily defended. There was nothing wrong with Justin and her talking for 10 minutes. She hadn't seen the guy for over 6 months, it wasn't like they were going to get back together. "Together...Stop it Emily...It's not going to happen." Emily argued with herself.
Ryan seem satisfied with the answer, and dropped the subject. He slipped his hand into Emily's as they walked the rest of the way to Deanna's dorm. They decided to order a pizza from Deanna's favorite pizza place, in attempt to make her feel better. Ryan agreed to go pick up the pizza to give Emily and Deanna a little time to talk about what happened today.
"D, why are you so upset?" Emily questioned. Even though she knew the answer, she thought it might help her friend, if she talked about it.
"M, I don't even know. It's not like we're going to get back together. I mean he has a girlfriend. I've gone out with other people too, so it's not like the fact that he's got a girlfriend bothers me because I'm single. But the fact that he said that I mean nothing, that really hit home. I mean there's not a day that goes by, that I don't think about him and everything we went through last summer. In my little dream world, I always pictured that some day we'd meet up and everything would be exactly as we left off. But now the day has come and it's nothing like I pictured." Deanna sobbed, new tears starting to trickle down her face. It was all Emily could do to keep back tears. Eventually, one fell down her cheek, knowing that everything Deanna had just said was exactly how she felt. She just didn't want to admit it to herself. Deanna giggled through her tears.
"Awe come on, don't you start too." she said, as they both started laughing.
"Can I ask you something?" Emily finally asked, after they stopped laughing. Deanna nodded.
"Did you tell Ryan that Justin was my boyfriend?" Deanna shook her head, while Emily let out a sigh of relief. "You want to keep that between you and me? I just.....I don't know...I told Justin that maybe we could get together, you know just to talk, and if Ryan knows that we went out, well he might think that there's something going on between us."
"I won't tell him, but I don't think you should keep that from him. It might backfire at you one of these days." Deanna discussed with Emily. Emily knew it was true, but decided to keep it from him for a little while, just for this break. She would tell him when they went back to school.
Just then, someone knocked on the door. Deanna opened the door to find Ryan standing with a 2 liter bottle of coke and a large pizza in his arms.
Justin walked back into the room, took his black leather jacket off, and placed it on a chair. He looked up to find all three of them staring at him.
"What??" He asked defensively. It wasn't like anything went on between Emily and him outside. They had just talked.
"Nothing, nothing." Abby mumbled, finding a seat on the bed next to Vesteva. Justin explained to everyone that they had just talked, in effort to clear everything up. The lack of conversation was starting to get on Vesteva's nerves so she asked everyone if they were hungry. As if someone had flipped a switch, all the life went back into JC at the mention of food. All 4 discussed possible choices of a restaurant, forgetting all about what had just happened not an hour before.
Though Abby was hungry, she couldn't seem to forget the expression on Justin's face when he walked back in the room. He looked happy, but not just any happy. He almost looked giddy, but he was trying to hide it. Abby felt jealousy creeping up on her, but pushed it away, trusting Justin's word that nothing was going on between them. And even though JC was Vesteva's boyfriend, she still felt bad for her new friend. It was hard to take it when someone said that they meant nothing to them. She would be absolutely crushed if someone said that to her, boyfriend, or not boyfriend. When everything was decided about the restaurant, Abby snapped back into reality. They had decided on a small corner deli, that not many people knew about, but Abby and her friends. She must have suggested it subconsciously. All four walked out the door, while Abby trailed behind, locking her door.
"Oh, wait. I forgot my jacket." Justin suddenly burst out, while they just stepping onto the elevator.
"Here, take my keys, just don't forget to lock up after yourself." Abby ordered, handing her keys to Justin, who took them and sprinted off the elevator. Justin quietly whistled to himself as he reached Abby's door and unlocked it. He went to grab his coat from the chair where he had left it, but something caught his eye. Over on Abby's dresser was the newest Teen People with his group on the cover. Justin smiled to himself as he walked over to it. The magazine was propped open to a page, laying on the dresser face down. He gently lifted the magazine up, to see which page she was on, when Justin's eye caught sight of something else. Underneath the magazine, was a pack of cigarettes. He lifted the pack up to find that there was only 3 left in the box. Angered, Justin picked up the box, shoving it into his coat pocket, determined to figure out when Abby had started up again. "After everything they'd went through..." he groaned to himself. Justin slammed the door behind himself, almost breaking the key out of anger when he went to lock it.