Justin had been watching Marie sleep. He couldn't help it. He was so drawn to her. He blond hair was spread out like a fan on the pillow, her eyelids fluttering slightly.
It had been a tiring night last night, a Pre tour party thing. He seemed to vaguely remember a lot of wine. He remembered a lot of people he didn’t know tapping him on the back saying, congratulations! Well done! He remembered a lot of English accents saying how exciting this all was. He remembered Marie looking more than a little faint, he remembered her collapsing in stunned JC's arms, and he remembered her giggling as he carried her up to her room. He remembered…
He smiled.
There was something so scary about the way he was feeling now. It was so strong. So powerful. Maybe it was because they had spent their first night in the same bed. Even if the only action he got, was brushing the hair of her forehead, and telling her how silly she was for drinking so much.
He leaned over and gently placed a kiss on her cheek. She stirred a little, a breathless mutter escaping from her lips. It was still her early; the room was illuminated with a soft morning glow. He really shouldn’t wake her, but he couldn’t resist. Gently he whispered in her ear. "Morning beautiful"
Her Distant blue eyes opened and focused on him. "Justin." She didn’t sound too pleased to see him, groggy covered it better.
"Baby." he smiled slowly, and placed a tender kiss on her forehead.
She sat up in bed reluctantly. Inside her head something seemed to be exploding and the room was spinning slightly.
"Ugh Justin, please tell me it's not before seven." She rubbed her eyes and put a hand up to her forehead.
"Ok it's not before seven." Justin lied sliding his hand over the digital clock, which glowing red figures signalled 6.30 She raised her eyebrow in obvious disbelief. "Do you always get up this early?"
He laughed at his own private joke. Quite clearly he did always get up this early. Justin Timberlake was so full of energy it was inhuman. He had this lust and untainted vigour for life, he threw himself head first into everything. She really wasn’t like him in that aspect. There was a lot to be said for a long lie in. It looked like that was off the cards at least.
"The early bird catches the worm." Justin suggested after a while, still grinning. What was with all the grinning anyway?
"Ha yeah." she stumbled out of bed. "And the cranky girlfriend kills her boyfriend for waking her up at the crack of dawn" He looked terrifyingly beautiful then. And it was far too early for what his eyes were suggesting. Maybe he was trying to make up for last nights little disaster.
She should have known really. She never could hold expensive wine, but it was such a big occasion. Smiling men in suits had thrust brimming glasses of wine in to her hand left right and centre. It seemed rude to refuse.
She must have been really drunk, because everything else was blurry. Except for JC's face right before she fell in to him What a picture that would have made, classic.
He had been sweet though, came up to see if she was ok. She made a mental note to thank him for that.
"We're going shopping today, that's ok right?" He propped himself up on the bed. The covers were still warm. Shit. There he went with those scary feelings again.
"What?" She yelled from the bathroom, running water drowning her out.
"We have the morning off, so we are going shopping" Justin explained diverting his attention to her stuff on the cabinet. There was a small leather book, with a lock. A diary? He jumped as she poked her head round the doorframe.
"Aren’t you rehearsing today?"
Justin shock his head. "No that's tomorrow, and the first concert is the day after." He looked at the cabinet again. It really was a diary. Well it was hardly unusual all girls kept diaries. He wondered if he was in it.
"Oh, ok. No I have to work this morning." She came back out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped round her hair.
"No you don’t." he followed her into the kitchen.
She raised her eyebrow. There he went with the selective hearing again. "Yes Justin I do. It's important, I wouldn’t say if it wasn’t."
"So skip it," he suggested hopefully, hands in his pockets. She did not miss the fact he licked his lips.
"To go shopping?"
"And be with your boyfriend."
It was a shame she really did have to work this morning, there was this little thing called a deadline and it was fast approaching. Justin was wearing his usual hopeful look, god it was a bastard telling him no.
She had been up all night partying for god's sake. She was supposed to have the first chapter finished by Wednesday. The basic idea was- she had to collect enough photos to fill the first chapter off this book she had been hired to do, and have them all organised. Now she had the photos, but the organisation part was lacking somewhat. It was Tuesday morning now; there was no way out of it. She absolutely had to work today.
"I can't." Marie said softly.
In return Justin offered the wounded puppy look. "Marie."
His voice sounded unusually winy, and for some reason it went right under her skin. Maybe it was too early. Or maybe it was that sinking feeling in her stomach that told he was not about to take no easily for an answer. He never did. He was so bloody enthusiastic about everything and persistent! Even at 6:30am.
She shock her head. "You can't expect me to drop everything at five seconds notice to be with you, it doesn’t work like that." She tried to concentrate on making some toast, but she could feel him hovering behind her. She started buttering the toast aggressively.
"Oh come on, its only work."
She dropped the knife. "Excuse me?" She spun around to face him.
It was the way he said it, it really was. Oh come on, its only work. Like it didn’t matter, it wasn’t important. Beneath him.
She got the feeling he didn’t even know what her job was. He really didn’t have the foggiest.
And that hurt.
He shrugged. "Well its not that urgent is it?" That was it. The anger simmered inside her.
How dare he dismiss her job as unimportant? When every single thing to do with Nsync was so life changing she absolutely had to be there or else the world would come to a tragic end. Last night for example, he insisted she go to the party like some dutiful wife. Heaven forbid her job should interrupt his schedule.
"An shopping is? Do I even get a say in what were doing? Oh no. It's all we are going shopping. Justin this is my job, my life!"
"Yeah but-"
"Yeah but nothing don't treat me like some brainless groupie. I wouldn’t expect you to sacrifice working for me so don’t except me too." She stormed off in the direction of the bedroom stomping her feet. She was about to get changed, and then decided against it what with Justin stood barely inches away.
"Yeah, but my jobs different."
He had to say it. He couldn’t have left it. Oh no he had to dig himself in just that little bit deeper. Typical Justin.
"Jesus Christ Justin! When are you going to start listening to me? It just goes straight over your head! I said I have to work, that's final. I'm sorry, but then you insult my job! Don’t ever make me feel cheap and beneath you Justin for gods sake."
"I didn’t mean it like that." Justin protested in vain.
"Look, just go." Marie said quietly. "I'll speak to you later." She turned away from him.
He hung his head. "I only wanted to be with you, I'm sorry."
"Justin, please."
He left reluctantly, glancing longingly at her as he did.
______________________________________________________________
Jc watched her for about a full minute before going over. She had her glasses on the end of her nose, and was struggling with an arm full of negatives. She looked flustered. He smiled. She was sitting at a little desk. Surrounded by photographs and piles of paper. She didn’t look like she was coping too well. He smiled.
Marie and Jc had officially been 'friends' for almost a week now. He preferred being her friend it was much less effort. Besides she was sweet and intelligent. There weren’t many girls who sit and listen to him talk about Silence of the Lambs for half an hour. But Marie seemed more than willing to listen. Why the hell had he acted like such an asshole?
He felt like he should do something to make it up to her- still. Even after continual apologies, millions of friendly gestures, and best of all, he had read Pride and Prejudice, the whole way through, on the strength of her word. She was very impressed, -'so you're not just a pretty face,'- she had said. Nice- but not quite the solace he was seeking.
He wanted to go over. He really did- but for some reason he still had to prepare. His heart was going double speed in his chest. He was like some softly spoken teenager reading out in class- terrified. Of what exactly he wasn’t sure. Never the less an overwhelming desire to befriend an entertain her had overcome him. He hoped that in doing that, he would have finally made it up to her for the way he acted in the beginning.
So probably he should go over. Now. Ok here went nothing.
"Marie." he said timidly, sitting down beside her. What was wrong with hi these days? An external sigh of her name seemed to encapsulate in better anyway.
She looked up. Those bluey green eyes studying him " Hey JC." She shrugged in an apology for the mess on her desk. All he could do was smile. She looked so striking when she was stressed it seemed a bit odd. Prettier when she was flushed and frustrated? Ok, he was human it was not that odd.
He tilted his head. "So what are you doing this morning?"
"Working," she said, with an unmistakable roll of the eyes. She shifted a pile of photographs; he noticed the top one was of him. He looked back at her; she'd slotted a pen behind her ear. How very business like.
"Fun?"
"Hardly, ugh!" She threw the photographs down, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes. He got the feeling he should do something.
"Here, let me help you." He straightened out the pile of photos in front of him, tapping them into an even pile. If he was anything he was a perfectionist. "So. We had good night last night huh?"
She giggled. "You are joking? I made a total fool out of myself!"
"Nah. You fell gracefully. Plus nobody noticed seen as you were wearing that black dress."
He sighed. That black dress. Slashed, short, tight. Damn it, he was too human.
"You like the dress huh?" She leaned back in her chair.
He raised an eyebrow. "Justin is lucky. Very lucky."
Her smile burst into an embarrassed laugh. She stood up and switched the kettle on. What was it with the English and tea? "Well you made me feel better. If only in a superficial way."
He shrugged and started to organise her desk a bit more. It really was a mess, no sense of a system at all. He collected the pictures of him together, likewise with the others. "You must have the patience of a saint," she said, biting her bottom lip.
"Hmm, well I guess you could say that." He started a new pile for group photos.
He never really realized it but she was amazing at her job. He'd seen dozens of photos where his smile look like at had been plastered on with a trowel. Made up face shining with insincerity. These were different, he could see himself reflected off the laminated surface. Somehow she had managed to capture and immortalise Nsync grin in dozens of countless spectacular photos. She had real talent. "Your so incredible at what you do, you know that?"
"Thank you. He was happy that she sounded truly please to hear that. It was almost enough. "Josh?" Marie walked towards him, and idea bubbling beneath her ocean eyes.
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing this morning?" He frowned. There was something about shopping with the rest of the guys. It wasn’t life or death though was it?
"Well I was… Why?"
She paused, struggling with something. Suddenly aware he glanced down at the now organised piles of photos, her hand that rested on top of his. "Stay with me."
"Sure." As soon as the word was out of his mouth, he acknowledged he always did have a problem with saying no.
___________________________________
Chris clapped his hands looking at the collection of friends around him. "Are we ready? Let's get this show on the road! What?" He asked noticing the expression on Lance's face.
"Please Chris tone it down a bit its early," Lance suggested dryly.
Chris had the feeling this was not the best of ideas. Shopping in London Justin had said- we absolutely have to go. Now Justin looked…like death. He didn’t have a clue why, but consequently his enthusiasm for this trip was rapidly decreasing.
They were all stood around in the lobby entourage included, waiting for a limo. This was the life all right.
"Marie's not coming," Justin said feeling Chris's eyes upon him. That explained the long face at least.
Chris nodded. "And why is that?" Justin just shrugged offering no reply. He was such hard work when he was in a mood. A sentence was a gift from god. He had his baseball cap low over his eyes. Shirt pulled down over his hands. "Are you still coming?" Chris asked politely as he could.
"I guess."
"Yay!" Karen cried faking eagerness. She looked around. There was Lance beside her. And there was Chris, Justin, and Joey Wait still one missing. "What about Jc?"
"Oh he's not coming," Joey replied calmly. "He has work to do, or something." He added the- or something, because it was a total lie. Jc was staying with Marie. But how was he supposed to say that to Justin when he was in this mood? It would go down like a led brick. So he lied.
"Right, so are we ready?" Lance said with a deep intake of breath.
Karen rolled her eyes. "Jesus, just go already." She had the feeling it was about to be a long day.
__________________________________________________
The phone was ringing.
And ringing and ringing….
"Are you gonna get that?" Jc asked eyeing the phone nervously. The ring tone had quickly become irritating, and now after the thousandth time his was close to hammering it with something heavy.
She shock her head. "Um, no actually let him stew." She picked the phone up, looked at the illuminated screen that displayed-Justin calling. And turned it off.
"Let me guess you had a fight?" Jc moved the now coloured coded pile for more than one group member to his side, and started to collect N sync crew photos together.
"He just pissed me off. Its not serious just I don’t want to talk to him now." Marie explained with a smile. There was a pause.
Had she done the right thing asking Jc to stay with her? If Justin found out he'd be mad. Especially after she said she couldn’t be with him. Why the hell had she done it anyway? To piss Justin off?
She looked at Jc. Head tilted, sighing out loud still organising everything. Being an angel. So that's why she asked him to stay.
Stuff Justin.
"You want some tea Jc?"
He rolled his eyes. "I'd love one."
___________________________________________________
"Damn she turned her phone off." Justin said along with few choice swear words. He almost looked like he was about to throw the phone down by some hideous sweater.
Joey took it from him quickly. "Who?"
"Marie."
The staff of Harrod's were eyeing the duo nervously as Justin started to scuff his shoe on the plush carpet. A small gaggle of teenagers were also paying them close attention. Joey didn’t want Justin to do something rash in such a public place, not something that screamed tabloids like- teen idol goes loony in Harrods. So thoughtfully Joey steered him towards the changing rooms.
"Why what happened?"
Justin threw his arms up, his lip jutting out. "I didn’t do anything Joey I swear, just one second it was ok, and then the next she told me to get out."
"Maybe it’s the time of the month." Joey suggested with a snort. He wanted to make Justin laugh. Ever since he'd been with Marie he had been a roller coaster emotions all over the place. And the scary thing was only love made you do that.
"What if I've screwed up already?" The tone of Justin's voice was so soft.
Joey put his hand on Justin's back. "But you said you didn’t do anything."
"I know! All I said was I want to be with you today, and she said she had to work. And then-"
"She said she had to work. And you couldn’t be together?" The cogs in Joey's head started to turn.
"Yeah."
She had told Justin she was working. But yet Jc had stayed with her. There was something not right about that.
A surge of anger ran through Joey. What was Jc thinking? When Justin was like this. He would tell Justin. It was the only option.
"It'll be fine Justin don’t worry. But there's something you should know it's about Jc."
______________________________________________
"So how come you don’t have a girlfriend?" Marie said suddenly looking over her glasses at Jc. His heart skipped. He knew this was coming and he didn’t have a good answer.
"Am I supposed to?" He stumbled. Trying desperately to focus on the picture of Lance in front of him.
She shrugged. "Well yeah." She saw Jc was less than convinced by this reply. "Oh come on Jc, you’re any girl's dream you know you are. Funny, smart, sexy, talented bla-" she trailed off because he was blushing, which was strange enough anyway.
"I just don’t." Jc laughed at his own reply. Why didn’t he just get lame tattooed on his forehead?
"Oh right." She nodded. "You don’t."
Why didn't this man didn’t he realize how incredible he actually was? The way he hung his head so often, and that gentle blush that had a habit of spreading its self across his cheeks. But he was…nice. Scrap nice, he was unbelievable.
"No. I have issues."
She rolled her eyes, and idea suddenly popping into her head. "You think I'm an idiot don’t you?" she said quickly. He shock his head. "No you do I know it, because one second you hate me and now… You're very confusing"
"Thank you, I'm thinking that as a compliment." Jc raised his eyebrow again. Confusing, that was a new one.
"Deluded as well. Joke."
"Marie Travis you are one unbelievable lady you know that?"
His heart thumped. Shit. What was the deal with that? So what if they were flirting, flirting was good. Flirting was fine Even if…shit.
Jc noticed no one was talking. She didn’t seem to mind. She was just looking at him a distant look in her eyes. He needed to relax.
"You know what you worry too much that's your problem. You should go out have fun fuck everybody else. Lord knows you deserve it." Marie said finally.
Jc took a long deep breath. What was he supposed to say to that? "I told you I have issues"
"I have issues too." She pulled up a chair beside him and rested her head in her hands, slipping her glasses off. The blue of her eyes made it instantly more intense.
He put the photograph in his hand down slowly. "Like what?"
"Well" she took a deep breath, screwing up her eyes. "I keep thinking this is crazy because I've never been out of England in my life, and in like two weeks I've got to go live in America. And I have know idea how I will survive cause I don’t even know how many pounds a dollar is."
"Marie"
"And I'm scared! I wish I could tell Justin, but all he's worried about is that I spend as much time with him as possible My occupation is not Justin Timberlake's girlfriend! Every single thing in my life seems to revolve around him." She looked up; her eyes were full of crystal tears, waiting to spill over. "And I'm sacred" she whispered timidly.
His shoulders fell, his heart lurched. "Marie. Oh Marie." She was crying. He almost didn’t believe it. Marie was tough, strong- feisty. And now she was crying over dollars and pounds?
He knew it was more than that, he knew it was a deep fear of the fact everything was moving so very fast. Her life had become a constant blend of parties and screaming girls. And Justin was not helping because he hadn't even noticed that fear.
Jc cursed Justin's inability to pick up on little things.
Marie was scared. And he did the only thing he knew how. He was the father and took her forcefully in to a hug. Whispered his-its ok's and I'm here's. His strong arms clasped around her trembling body. Protection.
"Don’t be scared, because you know in the end you’ve got me, and I know how many pounds a dollar is." He lifted her face that was pressed against his shoulder up gently. He wiped away the tears. "Don't be scared."
She smiled weakly. Maybe his word meant something to her. Maybe it didn't.
"Josh"
"Yeah." He released her and handed her a tissue. Her bottom lip was quivering slightly, and her words were punctuated with frustrated gasps for air. Her face was painted with mascara streaks.
"Will you be my thing?"
He frowned. "What?"
"The thing in my life that doesn’t revolve around Justin."
It was a silly thing to ask. But then he realized exactly it was what he could give her, that would make up for the way he acted before. He wanted to hug her for being so daft. He was at a point were he would do almost anything for her friendship. And something so simple as promise, he would give without a second thought.
He smiled slowly. "Sure."
"Thanks." She kissed him on the cheek. This time he didn’t blush, he just laughed.
"You're welcome." He stood up, stretching. "I'll make us some tea."
She laughed wiping the tears away. As she did she thought of one thing. Of how easy it would be to fall in love with someone as magnificent that.
______________________________________
"Hey." Marie said standing up, as soon as Justin entered the room. Justin threw his keys on the table and eased his jacket off without saying a word. He could do the cold eyes as well as he could the baby ones.
"Hey." He offered eventually sitting on the bed and unfastening his watch
"One syllable. We really are struggling." Marie paused waiting for a reply there was none. Wait a minute wasn't she angry with him? "You’ve been along time. Buy anything nice?"
"Cut the small talk. I'm tired." He started to unbutton his shirt.
She took a deep breath. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"I don’t know. You tell me" He looked up briefly, eyes wide. He dropped his shirt to the floor.
"Oh come on. Would you look at me?"
And he did. His face was blank; pale. "Why did you let Jc stay with you?"
Now it made sense. His voice was calm, polite even. But the atmosphere wasn't, there was a fight simmering in the air, she could feel it. That was all she needed right now. She had wanted to apologise for being stupid this morning, and Jc had convinced that things would be much easier if she just told Justin how she felt, that she was scared.
Her shoulders fell. "Who told you that?"
"Why does it bother you I know?" Off came the shoes, which were thrown, almost violently aside.
It was almost like the police trying to outwit the criminal. That patronising expression- the one making her feel about two inches tall. The one that made her feel guilty. Not that she needed help in doing that.
"Don’t be ridiculous; I just didn’t want you doing the crazy jealous act on me. I doesn’t matter that you know. It wasn’t a big secret."
She closed her eyes, close to tears. She was so emotional today, and now he was making her feel like such a bitch and all she had wanted was to spend some time with Jc, was it really that much to ask?
"Were you planning on telling me?" Justin slipped off his trousers. And rose gracefully to full height, in only his boxers. God he was so painfully attractive. It was all look at me, but damn it not now!
"No actually! Cause then you'd do this. Jesus Justin you practically ordered the guy to be friends with me, and now you're angry with me for doing exactly that."
"It's not that Marie. It's that I couldn’t be with you, your boyfriend! Yet some how he could."
She realized now that asking Jc to stay was not the best of ideas. She had a few justifications but at the end of the day if Justin couldn’t be with her, then she really shouldn’t have spent the day with his best friend. She had to fix this.
"Ok. I guess I wanted to make you jealous. He really helped today, and if you had been there you would have just distracted me. And Jc is a really great guy."
Oops she'd slipped up there. His eyes narrowed. Unbelievable. For weeks he'd been on and on- Jc is such a great guy Marie- you have to be friends with him. And as soon as she admitted that Jc was half decent. That was the look that greeted her. Fury.
"We can't be playing games already! You can't do this Marie. You can't play with my heart like this." She took a step back, clearing the lump that was lodging itself in her throat.
"He was helping me." She hung her head.
"I could have helped." Justin started to pace. She wrapped her arms around herself watching him go over to the closet and start throwing clothes on the bed. The clothes rapidly grew into a chaotic pile, and she shivered. Christ this was so extreme.
"Maybe-but I was pissed off with you!"
"I didn’t do anything!" Justin spun round. He looked like he was out of breath, and his hands were shaking, maybe it was the adrenalin seeping away.
"Jesus Justin we had a fight, maybe I had a hangover or I was cranky, but the fact is you pissed me off. You didn’t ask to stay with me. You told me what we were doing and that was out of line, you are not the boss of me!"
Justin did not reply for a while, he stood there for a moment searching for the perfect justification of his actions. Why had one harmless morning, resulted in this bizarre behaviour, and ultimately the biggest row they had ever had? His eyes lit up. This wasn’t about him-this wasn’t even about Marie. This was about somebody else who had no right to even contemplate interfering in his relationship. His own best friend.
"I'm gonna kill Jc!" Justin picked up his shirt; ready to go tearing out of the door eyes full of venom. Ready to go rushing straight round to JC's room, who would have no clue was this was all about, hammer relentlessly on the door, and judging by the way Justin fist were clenched do something extremely stupid.
She grabbed him firmly, her nails making imprints in his arm. He looked down at her, confused.
"Let go Marie."
"No." She held on tighter. She was fighting to keep the tears back now. Struggling with their impending force in her throat.
"No! He knows how crazy I am about you then- how dare he!"
She hated how he made Jc sound like scum of the earth. How could he do that to his best friend? How could ever talk about his best friend in that tone.
Now she really was crying.
"Justin! Don’t you dare, this isn't his fault he is the innocent party. I asked him to stay with me! He didn’t even know we had a fight. Please Justin leave him out of this."
He froze, eyes finally showing some recognition of her. She released her grip stumbling back, trying to regain some composure. Not that there was any point the tears were persistent and fierce.
"You asked him to stay with you? Marie closed her eyes. "You asked him to stay with you?" Justin repeated. The idea so foreign to him, that it wasn’t quite sinking in.
"I'm sorry Justin. I didn't think it would be that big a deal to you. You’re the one I'm with! You wanted me to spend time with Jc. I thought-."
She sensed she should give up on that argument, because she was losing. He took hold of her wrist, his grip was not firm or painful. She wasn't afraid of Justin she knew it was absurd to ever think of him hurting her. All the same he was taller, stronger, his defined muscles on show. She felt helpless and weak beside him.
"Just say yes or no!"
She took a deep breath Struggling with the tears. Do it For JC's sake. "Yes."
He dropped her wrist like it was a red-hot poker. He fell gracefully on to the bed, anger subsiding. Pain now showing up in his eyes.
"You think this is crazy don't you? How I'm acting? I know it is crazy. But you know this is my first time really. I've never been in love before so I'm kinda blind, and I'm acting obsessive and extreme-but that's only because I love you."
She didn’t want this first I love you to be like this. To be inspired by post anger adrenalin. For it to be her crying and him sat with his head in his hands cooling down after coming close to attacking his best friend. There was nothing to say. No words that quite encapsulate the way she felt now. Nothing to make it better. She was angry and hurt at him for making her cry, disappointed in him for acting like that when it came to Jc. But he loved her? Maybe it was justified. Love had no sense of reason, it was just plain crazy, and maybe it was ok for him to go crazy on her, maybe not.
"Justin we haven’t been together that long, and were practically living together already. I guess this fight is to tell us that we need to cool down a little. I need you to respect my work to understand that I can't give you 24/7." She sat down beside him. And they sat in silence reflecting. He didn't get an-I love you back, and she didn’t get her promise.
He still didn’t know she was scared.
She stood up. "I'll make us some tea."
Justin made a face. "Ugh no, it's disgusting."
*******************************-
Marie knocked on JC's door. She owed him an explanation. After the fight Justin had disappeared taking his car keys with him. So feeling like a criminal on the run she sneaked round to JC's room. She had no idea what she was about to say. It was more than likely given today's track record that upon seeing him she would burst in to tears. That weak feeling that you always got after crying filled her throat and her stomach and made her legs wobbly. Why the hell wasn’t he opening his damn door?
The door swung open. Their Jc stood a confused look upon his face. He rested against the doorframe. His blue shirt hung open, a white t-shirt on view underneath. It struck her like something out of a movie.
He smiled. "Can I help you Marie?"
"Um." She stumbled with her words struggling. He waited patiently. "Listen I just wanted to tell you, what I should have told you before."
He nodded. "Yeah ok, what?"
"This morning I kinda told Justin I couldn’t be with him because I had to work, and then I sort of spent the day with you."
Jc's blue eyes grew, not in anger, something else-she didn’t know what. "Oh I see." He bit his lip. "You wanna come in?"
Yes. "No, um I shouldn’t. There were a few reasons I was mad at Justin this morning, things I won't bore you with, but I guess I wanted revenge or something."
"So you used me?" He blinked, shoulders heaving. He was so beautiful. Damn it why couldn't she think straight?
"I don’t know it was a spur of a moment thing."
"Does Justin know?" Jc asked voice emotionless.
"Yeah." She sighed. "It didn’t go down to well. Um but don’t worry I told him it was all my fault, and you know-I'm the one he's mad at." She tilted her head. "Are you mad at me?"
He paused for a while. Long enough to make her heart sink. "No. Of course I'm not."
She had to do something, he looked so upset, hurt. "I'm glad I asked you to stay." He shock his head in obvious doubt. "No you are worth a little fight. You were so great today, and if you hadn't have helped with-you know- then I'd be a lot worse off." She wanted to cry. She wanted him to hold her and tell her it was going to be ok, but somehow she knew if he did that it would only make it worse.
"Its ok." He gave her that sparkling smile. "Marie Travis you are one incredible lady you know that?"
She laughed, fingers dancing across his arm. Shit.
She swallowed. "I better go" Ask me to stay Jc.
He nodded. "Ok." Stay with me.
"I'll see you tomorrow." Please?
He laughed for no particular reason. "Yeah" You're gonna leave aren’t you?
No one spoke for a second. She looked at the floor, then at her hands. Then into his eyes. Beautiful.
Shit.
He took a step back. "Bye."
"Bye"
He closed the door slowly.
This was not good. Something very scary was happening in his heart. He slid slowly down the door to sit on the floor. This was not good. Outside, for the third time in a day Marie burst into tears, her head in her hands.