by T. J. Sin
Realizing what he had done, Justin frowned. Totally embarrassed, he pressed his foot down on the pedal, sped out of the development and started back home. What am I doing? He asked himself. Here he was, following this girl that had made it clear to him on more than one occasion that she wanted nothing to do with him. He had started chasing her down and even going as far as to check and see if she made it home. This wasn’t like him, not the utterly cool and collected Justin Pinnix, not at all. He didn’t have to chase girls, especially ones that filled his car with water filled condoms or peppered his jock strap with itching powder. Normal girls usually flocked to him. He was an ultra-chick magnet- so why was he following this one who wasn't necessarily 'normal.'
He recognized that there was an undeniable draw that he had to Chloe. That much at least, he couldn’t ignore. Maybe it was that whole image of wanting the one thing that you knew you couldn’t have. Heck, he didn’t know. All he could ascertain was that there was just something about her he couldn’t stay away from and if he didn’t figure out what that something was soon, it was going to drive him certifiably insane.
Turning onto his street, Justin envisioned Chloe in his head. She was smart. Hell, anyone that could manage getting all of those water filled condoms in his car without him knowing about it had some serious skills. She was undoubtedly hot; toned body, legs that went on for miles, eyes that spoke to the soul and that dark raven hair that spilled over her shoulders only enhanced her alluring, exotic look.
But there was more- something else that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. She wasn’t like the other girls in the school, not like Cathy, not like Alana. In fact, she wasn’t like any girl he had ever met.
She tried to be in your face and radiated that f-you attitude but when someone got close, too close to her, she instantly closed off. It’s like she threw up that iron clad shield and she wasn’t about to let anyone get through it.
Justin parked his car, cut off the ignition, and for the longest time, he just sat there, thinking about Chloe and all the times that they’ve conversed. The time on her porch stood out to him more than anything. That was the one time that she revealed the most to him. She’d been hurt, badly. It was written all over her face. What was it she had said, he tried to remember, ‘Your kind are always the same’. He sat back in his seat, what did she mean by his kind? His kind, as in football player? A popular guy? Or what, just a guy in general?
Then she had also told him ‘you never change.’ What was he supposed to change? It just didn’t make any sense. Justin felt like he was trying to put together a puzzle and he was missing half the pieces. He recalled how she had been so adamant that he had slept with her cousin, even went so far as to accuse him of stealing her virginity. In fact, he stopped and rubbed the pad of his thumb thoughtfully across his bottom lip and mulled that over. That was when her switch irrevocably flipped. In the blink of an eye, she went from normal teenage girl to emotional wreck. Was that it? Was that the answer he was looking for? Did someone steal her innocence?
He felt his gut tighten with dread. The picture was starting to become a little clearer now. He remembered some of the things that Cathy had said, things about her old school, names they had called her. Slut. Whore. White trash. Tramp.
Justin ran his hand uneasily through his hair. Something bad happened at her old school. That had to be it. He already had a sickening feeling about what that something might be and he hoped like hell he was wrong. Because something like that would be hard for anyone to come back from, even someone that was as tough as Chloe. He thought about how strong and confident she had been that first day he met her in the halls on their way to English class. And then he smiled as he remembered how she put him in his place when he told her she was sitting in his desk.
But then he sobered. Was all that just a front? What was the reality of it all? Where did it all begin? To imagine her being taken advantage of like that was more than he cared to think about.
Sighing, Justin pushed open his door and stepped out of his car. Tomorrow he would get his hands on her file again and find out what school she went to before. It was time that he did a little investigating of his own. He was tired of playing these guessing games. He needed some answers and he needed them now.
**************
Chloe sat at the dinner table across from Erica, shooting her sideways glares. She hadn’t yet been able to get her cousin alone. It was like every time she tried, Erica’s mom or dad would conveniently show up and she would be forced to back down.
She shoveled another hefty bite of potatoes in her mouth. Chloe wasn’t even hungry but she couldn’t take her eyes off her cousin, so she ate anyways. Every so often, Erica would look up from her plate of food and coyly smile or raise a questioning brow in her direction. It was like she was daring her to say something to her.
“Well,” Chloe’s mom spoke up, oblivious to the unspoken signals flying across the kitchen table and breaking the awkward silence in the room. “I have some good news to share.”
Chloe froze, holding a spoonful of peas in mid-air and turned in her mother’s direction. Her mother was beaming. A coil of fear snaked down her spine. “I received a phone call today from my old boss. He’s asked me to come back,” her mother chirped. “As a signing bonus, he’s paying me an entire year’s lease upfront at our old apartment complex.”
Chloe couldn’t move. She sat there, perfectly still, suspended somewhere in the depths of time. This wasn't happening, she told herself. No, it couldn't be.
Erica didn’t seem to have any problems at all with speaking. “Well that’s wonderful news Aunt Jackie.” She turned to Chloe and smiled a smile that twisted her insides into sailor knots. “And cousin, that means you get to go back to your old school and graduate with all of your old friends. Isn’t that great news?”
Chloe felt an icy wind tickle the back of her neck as the blood promptly drained from her face. She was still looking at her mother, trying to process what she had just been told. Going back… to her old school… facing all of those people, facing all the guys, facing Craig.
Suddenly, Chloe felt sick to her stomach and abruptly jumped up from her chair, almost knocking it down to the floor in the process. “Excuse me,” she mumbled, and covered her mouth with her hand while turning away and hastily running out of the room.
Chapter 24
The next morning, Justin pulled into the school parking lot and parked his car in his usual space. He was dragging after staying up over half the night, Googling and Facebooking for any bits of information that he could get on Chloe and her old school.
He hadn’t been able to come up with much, other than she went to Westbrook High, which was only about an hour from where they were now. When the alarm clock started flashing three am, he could no longer hold his eyes open and was forced to give up his fact finding mission for the night. Frustrated, he closed his lap top and fell face first into the sheets.
When the alarm clock went off three hours later, Justin felt like he had just drifted to sleep. Yawning widely, he pulled himself out of the bed and fumbled his way to the shower.
It was in the shower when something suddenly occurred to Justin. He was lathering up his hair and remembered John telling him about a cousin that he had that went to Westbrook. He only remembered that particular conversation because that cousin was also on the football team and John went on and on about some kind of family rivalry the two of them had going for the best stats.
Leaning his head back, he let the steamy jets of hot water spray over his soap lathered scalp. Now that he was finally on to something, Justin vigorously ran his fingers through his hair, rushing to rinse out the strongly scented Axe shampoo. He needed to call John.
He figured if this cousin of John's was on the football team, then there was a good chance that he knew pretty much everyone in the school, including Chloe. And if he knew Chloe, then he may just be the key to all of the answers he was looking for.
After he got out of th
e shower, Justin didn’t even bother with drying off. Instead, he quickly grabbed the towel off the sink, and wrapped it around his waist. When he walked out of the bathroom, he still had water dripping off his naked torso. Combine that with the cool air blowing from the air conditioner, goose bumps broke out like a rampant rash all over his skin. But even that didn’t faze him. All he could think about, was getting to his phone and getting in touch with John.
He found his phone still in jeans pockets from the night before. Picking it up, he flipped it open and didn't even bother to look at the time when he sent his first text to John. He was desperate and desperate times call for desperate measures. He considered this to be one of those times. He needed to know what was going on with Chloe. She had become such an enigma to him and he had a feeling that he wouldn't get a decent nights rest until he knew what was going on. He just hoped that John could put him in touch with this cousin of his and the sooner, the better, or else he was going to go crazy trying to figure it all out.
When Justin finally got out of his car, he checked his phone again to see if he had a response from John. There was nothing. Sighing in frustration, he shoved his phone in his back pocket, grabbed his book bag from the passenger seat and slammed the door closed.
He had no more than turned around when Cathy stepped in front of him. She smiled her usual seductive smile and placed a hand on his chest. The meaning of the gesture wasn’t lost on him at all.
“You’re late,” she breathed out heavily, looking up at him underneath those long dark lashes of hers. Her lips were fixed in a childish pout and it didn’t take a fool to see what her game was.
At one time, he had loved to play this game with her. The sexy game where she rubbed up on him, teased him with her body and put on quite a show. But now, with those fake lashes and especially the way that she outrageously batted them at him, if all just seemed ridiculous in hindsight.
Justin took her hand from his chest and pushed it away from him. “I’m not late,” he said pushing past her. “The first bell hasn’t even rung yet.”
It took Cathy all of sixty seconds to realize what had just happened. Had she really just been dismissed? There was something seriously wrong with this picture. Nobody, not even Justin, ever dismissed her before. She placed her hands on her hips and glared in disbelief at Justin’s retreating back.
“Hey!” She yelled at him. “Are you just going to walk past me like I’m not even here?”
Justin didn’t look back. He actually picked up his pace some as he made his way to the school’s entrance. Cathy was the last person that he wanted to deal with now. She showed her true colors yesterday and from what he saw, there wasn’t anything pretty about them. He didn’t want anything to do with her.
Cathy huffed and stomped her foot, looking every bit of a petulant toddler.
She couldn’t believe it. She could not believe that he was really walking away from her. When he did it yesterday she figured he’d eventually come to his senses. She almost actually understood that he was just taking up for the girl who played the damsel in distress routine to a tee, and now she was willing to forgive and forget. The new girl wasn’t one of them, and she expected Justin to realize where his true loyalties were.
Those loyalties should be with her- like always. That’s just the way it was supposed to be. The head cheerleader and the quarterback were meant to be together. It was the most basic rule in the high school social handbook. You couldn’t buck the system when it’s been in place for years. That was just plain idiocy.
Besides, today was a new day and she expected life to go back to normal. Normal was her and Justin.
“Hey,” she cried out again, chasing after him. This time, she grabbed Justin by the arm and pulled him to a stop. “What’s your problem Justin?” She sidled up against him and slowly traced his chin with the painted tip of her finger. “You acted like an ass yesterday when you interrupted our fun with the new girl. But I thought about it last night and decided that since I liked you so much and because of our long history together that I was going to be nice and forgive you for it. Isn’t that great?”
“Forgive me?!” Justin exclaimed. He looked at her and let out a humorless laugh. The girl was delusional. “Are you fucking kidding me Cathy?” He pushed her off of him a second time and this time he wasn’t gentle about it.
He saw her shocked expression and shook his head. After everything that was said yesterday did she really think he cared what she thought? The first bell rang and it startled him. “Look, just leave me alone Cat.”
She went to grab him again and Justin took a step back, holding up his hands. “What about us?” she asked him, “What’s everyone going to think if they don’t see us together?”
"Get this through your thick skull Cathy, there is no us. Now please," he stared icily back at her and hissed through his teeth, "just stay the hell out of my way."
Seeing her mouth gape open like a gold fish, Justin spun around on his heel and made tracks towards the school. He bounded up the steps two at a time when he felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket. Anxious, he stopped and pulled it out to see John's name flashing on the screen. With his phone in his hand, he glanced down the now mostly empty hall and heard the final tardy bell ring.
"Screw it," he muttered and turned back around to head back towards his car. Classes could wait. Dashing back down the steps, he flipped open his phone. "Hey John," he said, glancing both ways before he crossed the parking lot. "You feeling any better?"
John sat back on his bed and stared out the window. He was surprised when he glanced at his phone to see that he received a text from Justin this morning. He was counting the hours for his doctor to arrive because the early morning nurse had told him he would probably go home today. He couldn't wait. Being waited on was all well and good, but he was ready to get back to his old life. Being cooped up in this one window room wasn't doing much for his psyche. "Yeah, I'm doing good," he told Justin. "I'll probably get released today."
"Really?" Justin sounded surprised.
"Yeah, I just have to wait for the doctor to come in and release me."
"Oh, well that's good, right?"
"Yeah," John replied. "I should be back at school by the end of the week."
"That's great man. Um, sorry about last night. Did Alana talk to you? About Chloe, I mean."
"Yeah, she did," John said, running a hand over his face. He and his sister had a long conversation the night before. Alana had told him about the fight with Chloe and he argued with her about it. She shouldn't have attacked her like that. He knew it had all been a joke, it just went terribly wrong. He couldn't hold a grudge over that. He was obviously fine now and before they finished their talk, he made his sister promise to let it go.
"You two okay now?"
"Yeah, now we are. How's Chloe anyway? I sort of wanted to talk to her before everything went down yesterday."
"Well, that's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about," Justin said getting in his car. "Are you alone?"
"Yeah, for now anyway. Mom's coming around nine and the doctor around ten or so. I'll probably be alone for about an hour. Why?"
"I'm on my way," Justin said, starting his car.
"Okay," John drawled out, a little more than confused by his friend’s tone. Something was most definitely up. "Hey man, is everything alright?"
Justin watched the rear view mirror as he backed the car out of the parking space. "Not sure man, I'm hoping you can help me figure some things out though. I'll be there in ten."
Before John could ask him anything else, the phone line went dead. Sighing, he tossed his phone on the bed beside him, and wondering what in the world was going on with Justin. His own curiosity first started yesterday when he watched him run after Chloe. He could tell then that something was bothering him. But what?
He glanced at the clock over the television that was mounted to the wall. He guessed he would find out in ten minutes.
*******
; Chloe zipped up the last suit case. She only had one more duffel bag to go. Most of their stuff was in storage so she didn't have a whole lot to pack up. She couldn't believe that she was going back.
