I ran across the wet grass to the house where Justin was waiting at the door for me. He pulled the door open as I approached. “Brr...” I said, shivering.
“You silly girl. It’s raining and you wore those clothes over here with nothing to change into?”
I held up a backpack. “Wrong sweetie. I got more clohtes.” I reached up to feel the chain around my neck. Normally, I had on a necklace that Justin had given me, and for some odd reason, mostly for my own security, I didn’t like for Justin to see me without it on. When I reached up for the chain, it wasn’t there. I began to silently panic. ‘Okay Alex, what did you do with it?’ Then, I remembered I had taken it off when I changed for bed and it was sitting on my dresser. “Will you put this on the washer?” I asked sweetly.
Justin took the backpack from me. “And what are you doing?”
“I’ll be right back.” I turned around and ran back out the door and to the trailer, hoping mom wouldn’t hear me come in. I was in luck. I didn’t even see Kelly sprawled all over the couch still on the phone. I ran to my room, grabbed the necklace, securing the chain about my neck, and ran back to my grandparents house. I stepped inside and shivered again.
“Would you like me to get your other clothes for you?” Justin asked.
I nodded, but then, stopped him. “Justin, here, take these with you.” I quickly stripped off my shirt and shorts.
“Would you like me to leave?”
“Only if it makes you uncomfortable. You’ve seen me in a bikini, so it’s not that different.” Justin shrugged and heisitantly approached me to take the sopping clothes from my hands. He left and reappeared with the backpack. I quickly dug into it and pulled out my nice, clean, dry clothes. After I was dressed again, Justin and I went and sat in the living room. We both were silent until I yawned. Justin jokingly shook me.
“Wake up! I never get to see you... your not falling asleep on me now!”
“But, I’m tired.”
“But I wanna talk to you.”
“Can’t you talk to Lance? Isn’t he still awake?” I asked.
“I talk to Lance all the time. And, he’s still on the phone. Even if he wasn’t, I wouldn’t wanna talk to him, ‘cause Lance is boring.”
“Lance is boring?” A deeper voice repeated from behind us. I turned around to see Lance standing in the doorway.
“Hey Lance,” I said, a sweet smile plastered on my face.
“Hey Kelly, hang on a second, okay?” Lance put the phone down by his side. “Justin, did I see you walk by with Alex’s clothes a little bit ago?”
“Yeah,” Justin answered.
“And Alex wasn’t in them.”
“No,” Justin said.
“Alex, did you change over here?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Oh... did you go to the bathroom to change?”
“No.”
“Oh... where did you change?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Oh. Was anyone in the room with you?”
“Justin was.”
“Oh.” Slowly, Lance brought the phone back up. “Kelly? I don’t know what just happened here.” He left the room, leaving me in a fit of giggles.
“He is one space cadet,” I said through my laughter.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Justin said with a smile.
I was quiet for a second. “Does he talk about her on the road alot?”
“All the time to us... and he’s always on the phone with her. That boy has the largest phone bill of all of us now.”
“So, he talks to her alot?”
“Yeah, and it gets disgustingly sweet. I love you, no, I love you more, bet you don’t...” Justin gagged. “I’ve tried telling him I have a very sensitive gag reflex...”
“If that’s so, how do you look at yourself in the mirror?”
Justin started tickling me at my remark. I crawled away from him, but he followed me onto the floor. I tried to get away again, so he climbed on top of me and kept tickling. “What do you say?”
“I give!”
“No, I was looking for something along the lines of ‘Justin Randall Timberlake is the hottest guy I know and no one can compare to him and I just love him so incredibly much and he’s also the most talented. Oh yeah, and he’s a really good basketball player.’”
“I’m not gonna say that!”
Someone walked into the room then. Justin and I both looked behind us to see Joey. “Justin?”
“Yeah?”
“Alex, is that you?” He sleepily rubbed his eyes.
“That’s me!” I waved from my spot on the floor.
“Am I dreaming?”
“Yes, yes, you are are,” Justin said with a smile.
“Oh.” Joey turned back around and walked back to the opposite room. Justin jumped up and followed him in. So did I. Once Joey was settled back into the recliner, we placed a blanket over him as he drifted back to sleep.
“Aww... doesn’t he look cute?” I smiled.
“Oh yeah, sure, why not?”
“Sleeping beauty,” I answered.
“Just don’t go waking him with a kiss,” Justin said with a smile. He took my hand and led me out onto the porch then. The two of us settled ourselves on the swing.
“Don’t worry...” I looked off into the darkness to see that the rain was beginning to let up somewhat. “So...”
“So...”
“Wanna make out?”
Justin laughed. “Sure.”
“I was being sarcastic. If you have to ask, it just kills the mood.”
“Oh, I knew that,” Justin said with a smile. “But, hey, gotta take what you can get.” I smiled at him.
“Remember how we met?”
“Oh my gosh... if it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t have.”
“Wouldn’t that be, if it wasn’t for Lance and Kelly?”
“Nope. I was the one who caused them to met.”
“Oh yeah! I remember now! But, remember our first phone conversation?”
“How could I forget?” Justin mumbled as we were both lost in our memories.
