Lynn walked into Justin’s room. He was still sleeping. Lynn walked over to Justin’s bed and shook his shoulder. Justin groaned and rolled back over onto the opposite side that Lynn was on and turned against the wall.
“Justin, honey you have to wake up.” Lynn said rubbing his back.
“No!” Justin mumbled.
“You have to get up. You have school.”
“No!” Justin pulled the covers over his head.
“What’s wrong?” Lynn sat down on the side of the bed and rubbed his back again.
“Nothing.” Justin pushed Lynn’s hands off of him.
“Justin.”
“Get away from me!” Justin yelled.
“Honey.”
“Get out of my room.”
“Justin, you have school.”
“No!” Justin cried.
“What’s the matter Justin, are you sick?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you just say something?” Justin shrugged his shoulders. “Sweetie, turn around.” Justin turned onto his back and looked at his mother. His eyes were read and there were still a few tears running down his cheeks. Lynn felt his forhead and cheeks. “Are you in pain?”
“Yeah.”
“What hurts?”
“Everything.” Justin whimpered.
“Oh honey...don’t cry.” Lynn rubbed his cheek again. That made him just more upset. He turned his face away from Lynn. “I’m gonna go call your school, okay. I’ll be right back.” Lynn stood up from Justin’s bed and walked out of his room.
“Mommy, can I wake Justin up?” Stephen asked.
“No baby, Justin’s up, but he doesn’t feel good, stay out of his room.” Lynn said walking into her room and taking out her phone book to get the number of Justin’s school.
*****
After calling Justin’s school to tell them that Justin wouldn’t be in school today she went back into Justin’s room. She sat down on the bed again. Justin was laying on his back just starring at the ceiling.
“I called you into school.” Lynn said.
“Ok.” Justin sighed.
“What’s exactly bothering you?”
“I don’t know. Everything.”
“Ok, why don’t you just get some sleep? That might make you feel better.” Justin nodded and Lynn got up off the bed and walked to the door closing it behind her.
*****
“Where’s Justin?” JC asked as he walked into the cafeteria in the morning.
“He’s not here yet I guess. I don’t know.” Britney said looking around.
“Aright thanks.” Britney nodded and finished doing her Global homework she needed finished for first period.
*****
“Honey, I’m taking Jonathon and Stephen to school.” Lynn called from the kitchen.
“Ok.” Justin yelled back. He was feeling better so he decided to come down stairs and watch TV.
“I’ll be back in about an hour.”
“Ok.” Justin flipped through the channels on the television. It was only eight o’clock and he was already bored out of his mind. He should have just went to school and just been ignored by JC all day. It wouldn’t be the first time. Maybe if he did this the first time he wouldn’t have had that black eye, which was now just about gone.
Justin got off the couch and walked into the kitchen and opened the pantry closet looking for his favorite cereal, Captain Crunch. He was getting annoyed that he couldn’t find it. He walked over to the table and sighed as he sat down, and then he noticed a familiar red box. He shook his head and grabbed the box of cereal. He opened the cabinet and took out a bowl and then a spoon from the draw and then walked over to the refrigerator and poured some milk in there. He left the milk on the counter and walked over to the stairs to go back into his room.
*****
Justin put the bowl down on the computer desk and sat down. He turned the computer on and waited for it to start up. When it finally was all done, he signed onto AOL.
Nobody, nobody was on.
He went into his mail and checked thought it deleting all the junk he got since Friday and kept the stuff that he wanted to read later.
He clicked WRITE with a little envelope next to it, which opened a new email to write on, so he started writing an email to Britney, there was nothing else to do. And besides, she loved getting nonsense emails.
*****
Christina was suppose to be walking to her Earth Science classroom for seventh period lab. She noticed that Britney was walking into the cafeteria. She ran over to her and pulled her away from any people that could overhear what she was gonna say.
“I think I have an idea.” Christina said excitedly.
“Idea for what? You’re gonna get in trouble and I need to talk to JC.” Britney said looking into the cafe.
“It’s about the two stupid heads. JC being on of them.” Britney sighed.
“What?”
“You know how me and Josh have to solos?”
“Yeah.”
“Well I was thinking...” She started and the bell rang.
“You better go finish telling me later.” Britney was gonna walk away but Britney grabbed a hold of her blazer.
“I have Honikel, she doesn’t care if I’m late...she’s too stupid.”
“Ok.”
“So...I was thinking that this could work for my advantage, and to help the idiots realize they’re in love with each other.”
“Huh?”
“You know how I love JC right?” Britney nodded. “So Justin knows that, I know he knows that. So...”
“Flirt with him! Ooooh. Chris, you’re a genius.”
“I could always do more than flirt with him.” Christina wiggled her eyebrows and Britney pushed her.
“We’ll talk about it later ok.” Christina nodded and they walked their separate ways. Britney walked into the cafe and Christian ran down the hall to her Science room.
*****
“Where’s your boyfriend?” Joey asked sitting down across from JC. JC didn’t answer him.
“Justin’s not here today.” Britney said opening the plastic wrap on her sandwich.
“Joe, just go away.” JC said.
“What’d you do to him? Can he not walk or something today?” Joey laughed.
“Joey go away.” JC looked up at him and glared.
“Fine, I’m going.” Joey said and got up from there and walked over to his usual seat at the senior section. JC sighed once he was gone.
“You ok Jace?” Britney asked. JC nodded.
“Justin and me got into a fight when I was driving him home.”
“Yeah. He told me.”
“I didn’t mean to get mad at him.”
“He was really upset about it. And not to make you feel worse or anything, I think that’s why he didn’t come to school today. He told me he wasn’t.”
“He didn’t come to school today because I was mad at him.” Britney nodded. JC sighed.
“You think his mom will let me over there after school?”
“I don’t know...I doubt it. And doesn’t she hate you right now?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah so I...”
“I’ll just get all his work from Chem and Spanish and I’ll see if Christina could get his Math for him, and I’ll bring it over.”
“That’s a good idea, but how are you gonna get into his locker?”
“I know his combination.” Britney nodded.
“Can I ask you something?” JC nodded. “Actually a couple of things.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you still like hate me?”
“No.” JC laughed. “And I never hated you.”
“You seemed like you did?”
“Well I don’t.”
“Ok.” Britney nodded, she was glad to hear that. “Do you like Justin?”
“What?”
“Do you like him? Like, like him like him.”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I do not like him. No like that. I love him, he’s my best friend but no I don’t love him like that.”
“Oh ok.”
“Why?”
“Cause, I don’t know the way you two were...you know.” JC laughed.
“Justin was drunk he had no idea what the hell he was doing, and he’d get mad if I didn’t cause he wants to confuse you so much.”
“Well you and him have succeeded. You two confuse me so much.” JC laughed.
“We try.”
“So are you gonna try to go to his house?”
“Yeah, I’m gonna skip Chem today and just go.”
*****
JC pulled up in front of Justin’s house. He turned off the car and got out. He walked up the driveway and noticed that Lynn’s car wasn’t there. He was pretty happy about that.
He walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. He heard someone running to the door and then he heard the lock being turned. The door opened and Justin was standing there. Justin sighed when he saw that it was JC.
“What do you want?” Justin asked. He didn’t open the screen door.
“Can I come in?” JC asked. Justin shrugged. “Please.”
“Fine.” Justin opened the screen door and JC walked in. “But you gotta be quiet. Stephen’s upstairs. He came home sick from school.” JC nodded. They walked over to the couch and sat down.
“Why didn’t you come to school today?”
“I didn’t feel good.”
“You don’t look sick.” JC smirked.
“Well I am.”
“Ok...so what’s wrong?” Justin shrugged. “You’re not sick. Britney told me that you knew last night that you weren’t coming.”
“Well she has a big mouth.”
“So why weren’t you in school?”
“She told you.”
“So that’s why?” Justin nodded and looked away from him. “Are you crying?” Justin shook his head no and turned even more away from him. JC moved closer. “Jus, don’t cry.” JC put his hand on Justin back and startled him and made him jump. “Justin don’t cry, come here.” Justin turned around and JC opened his arms and Justin leaned into JC. JC rubbed his back as Justin cried. “What’s with you lately Jus?” Justin cried harder. “I didn’t mean it like that.” JC brought his other hand to Justin’s face and rubbed his cheek and kissed the top of his head just as the front door opened.
