Jes' day was going by SO SLOW. She could only think of her after school activity she had to get to and that made things seem slower than they were. She rushed the day ahead and finally heard the last bell ring. She quickly grabbed her bag and left the school area. Her mother was right there waiting on her. She was going to take Jes to the house today so she knew she made it safe.
Her mother was a little apprehensive about letting Jes spend the day with a stranger but after what seemed like hours of begging by her, she gave in and was now on her way to the stranger's house.
Jes was let off at the gate and quickly pressed the talk button so she could get the attention of the people inside. When she heard the voice on the other end come on, she didn't recognize it so she told the person who she was. Immediately the gate opened and Jes walked in. She waved good-bye to her mother and told her she would call when she needed to be picked up.
Jes walked slowly down the driveway towards the beautiful house that appeared behind the trees. It wasn't the largest in town but it was definitely the oldest. It was so well kept that Jes thought that surely this woman had a staff of 20 or so but she didn't see anyone around. She made it up to the front door and could hear dogs barking. She was a little apprehensive about this, dogs weren't her favorite, but she took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.
Before the last chime, the door opened and an elderly woman appeared. "You must be Jes. Please come in, Marina is expecting you." This was the first time Jes had heard someone say her name. It finally hit her that 'ME' stood for Marina Etherton. She smiled at finally figuring that one out.
The lady held the door open for the young girl to enter. She looked around the home and saw that although the outside was old, the inside was straight out of one of her magazines. It was beautifully decorated to feel like a home and Jes smiled at the warmth of it.
"Come on in, Marina should be down in a minute. She had to see to something first. I'll just check on the dogs. They are always barking up a storm when we have company. Don't worry about them though, they are really just big puppies." The woman said to Jes.
She smiled at her and went to exploring the house. She walked into what she figured was the living room. On the walls were paintings beautifully designed with vibrant colors. Jes liked this room. It felt alive to her. She walked up to the fireplace and noticed a few pictures on the mantle. She recognized the woman in it as Marina but didn't know who the other person was. Probably a cousin or something, she thought.
What Jes didn't see was a picture of HIM. She searched the room and nothing. Not a trace of his existence was here. She could have sworn that Marina would have had at least one picture, one momento of their time together but nothing. Maybe in her room, she thought.
She returned to the first picture and stared at it. For some reason, the person in it reminded Jes of someone but she couldn't place the face. She looked closer and just when she began to realize who he was, she heard someone say something to her.
"He's beautiful, isn't he?"
Jes turned around and saw, standing in the doorway, Marina and she wasn't alone. In her arms, she held a tiny little person. Jes looked at the baby then back to the picture then back to the baby. It clicked and she walked up to the woman and held out her arms.
She let the baby slid into the young girl's arms and began to speak. "He's been up all night with a cold so I hope he doesn't get you sick, too." She said as she smiled to her young friend.
Jes held the baby in her arms, looking at the same blue eyes that his mother had…and his father. "He's his isn't he?" She asked, looking up at the older woman.
Marina brought a hand to the baby's face and gently ran her fingers down his cheeks. "Yeah, he is."
Jes could see the pain in her eyes and wanted to know why it was there. "Hawaii?"
Marina looked to Jes and smiled. "Hawaii."
Both girls knew what the other was talking about. Hawaii had been the place that this all started and eventually ended.
The elderly woman who opened the door for Jes came back into the room a minute later. "Here, let me take him outside and get some fresh air. That'll give you time to talk." She picked up the baby and turned to leave the two alone.
"Please, sit." Marina motioned Jes to take a seat on the couch. "Do you want anything to drink? Eat?" Jes shook her head 'no'. "Well, I guess you know what happened in Hawaii, huh?"
Jes tried to be serious but being a young girl, she couldn't help giggling. "Yeah, I guess I do."
Marina laughed with her and then grew silent. "Well, there is a lot more than just that. After we got up that morning, we decided to make the most of the time we had together. No one on the island even knew he was there with me. Don't ask how we pulled that off but somehow we did. I think that was one of the best weeks of my life, up to that point. We talked about what was going on in our lives. Spent long walks on the beach. Relaxed in the sun. Just being alone. We didn't have to hide our feelings for each other and that's what made it so special."
"But what about him leaving you and saying you were a 'loose cannon' and stuff." Jes said that before she thought. She looked at the woman before her and saw the sadness return to her eyes. "I'm so, I just…"
"No, don't be. I felt the same way when I saw him. He had said so many things to me that I couldn't write most of them down. He begged me to forgive him for them all. He said that he was backed into a corner and didn't know what to do. He knew that the easiest thing would be to end it with me and then the problems would go away but they didn't. He was still hounded by the press, taunted by his friends, given the cold shoulder by those around him. He was treated awful for the way he ended things with me."
She took a deep breath before continuing.
"His friends told him that he had no guts, no balls to stand up and say that we were together. He had left me to face the press alone and that was wrong. He stood by and watched me get verbally attacked everyday by the people who I worked for and by some fans. He stood by and read all the articles calling me names and making me sound like an idiot, but he still did nothing. He didn't want to face the same thing if he said anything so he didn't."
"What made him change his mind. I mean, he had to have changed his mind because he came to see you in Hawaii, right?"
"Well, let me say this, sometimes when you love someone so much that you can't see straight, the best thing is to clear them from you site and start over."
"What? He came to Hawaii to sleep with you, get you pregnant and then walk away. I can't believe…"
"No, he didn't. I did."
Jes looked at the woman beside her and had to physically shut her mouth with her hand. Never in her wildest dreams did she think that Marina would have been the one to end the relationship. "But I thought you loved him…"
"I did…I still do but it was for the best. I had to do it for us all." She said as she stood and took the picture of her and her son from the mantel down and held it close to her heart. "I had to think of him. For the first time in my life, I had to put someone else before me and walk away. My son is safe and happy because of it. That's all that matters."
Jes wasn't sure she wanted to hear the rest of the story but asked Marina to tell it.
"Well, after we left Hawaii, we tried to make it work again and did so until I found out I was pregnant…"
"Honey, no you don't have to come over tonight. I'm fine, just a little sick that's all. No, I don't need anything. No…I um…no…yes, I know I need to…no…okay, I'll see you later." Marina said as she hung up the phone.
"What was that all about?" Her roommate asked.
"Nothing. He just wants to come over and see me and bring some food or something. I told him I didn't feel good but you know him, he insists."
"So is he on his way over?" Marina nodded her head. "Are you gonna tell him about the baby?" Marina shook her head from side to side. "Girl, you have to tell him. He is the father, you know."
"I know, but he is also a big celebrity and you know what happened before when I even mentioned us dating, let alone having a baby. No, he can't find out about this. He is too kind of a person to let me go it alone and would give everything up for us. I can't let him do that. I just can't."
Her roommate approached her as she sat on the couch of the small apartment they shared. "Marina, you have to tell him. Even if he says he would give it all up, even if he says 'to hell with you' and leaves, even if he asks you to marry him, you have to tell him. You aren't being fair to him and you know it. Give him the chance to decide for himself. Don't make that choice for him."
Marina sat there thinking about what she was saying. She had to be honest with him and tell him straight out about the baby even if…
"Okay, I'll tell him. He should be here in a few minutes and I'll tell him then." She hugged her roommate and walked into her room to write in her journal.
Well, this is probably going to be one of the last times I write in you for awhile. See I am going to have other things on my mind than talking to you. I am, well, gonna have a baby! Can you believe that? ME having a baby. What do I know about babies? Nothing! But I know he or she will be the most beautiful baby in the world because of him. He is the father. I know. I know. How could I let this happen? Well, I swear it wasn't planned but it just happened. We even used protection but somehow it didn't work. All I can say is that it seems it was meant to be.
He's on his way over here right now to try to make me feel better. I told him I was sick but I'm really not. I hate lying to him but I just didn't feel like seeing him right now. Every time I do, I want to just take him in my arms and never let him go. But I have to. His career, his life can't handle a girlfriend, let alone a baby in it.
We have been pretty successful in dodging the press about us. They still think we aren't together and since I don't work for that dumb TV station anymore, they have nothing over me. But I know it's time to let him go. It's just the right thing to do. I know it is. I just don't know how I'm going to look him in the eye and tell him about the baby and then walk away.
He'll be crushed, I'm sure. I…….
Just then, the journal was picked up from beneath her hands and she turned to see who took it. She wanted to cry when she saw his face reading the words she had just written.
He didn't say anything but slowly put the book back down and turned to leave her room. He had come in here to surprise her but she didn't even hear him enter.
"JUSTIN WAIT!" She yelled after him but he kept walking towards the door.
He made it to the front door and was turning the knob when she caught up with him. "Please don't leave." She begged him.
He turned around and with fury in his eyes said to her, "why not, you're leaving anyway. I'll just go first."
She buried her head in her hands and prayed for the nightmare to end. She could see the pain in his eyes and wished to take back everything she wrote about.
"Don't get upset on me now. You had this planned out to do it tonight anyway. Why are you crying? Is it because I found out before you could tell me, is that it?"
She looked up at him through the tears and tried to make them stop. She knew that if she explained her reasons for what she was doing to him, then he would forgive her and probably take her back and try to make things work. She wasn't going to do that. He had to leave in order for their lives to go on.
She took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her eyes. With all the strength she had, she told him, "Yes, I'm upset because you found out before I could leave you first."
He looked at her, shocked she admitted that to him. "WHAT?"
She changed her words to make more of an effect. "I said that I want you out of here. I want you out of my life…out of the baby's life, for good. Once you leave this apartment, I don't want to…I don't want to…to…" She couldn't get the words to come out. All that did was make the tears start again.
This time Justin's face softened when he realized what she was doing. She was letting him go before trouble started again. Them just dating was a mess but add a baby into it and it made things even worse. Although he didn't want to leave them, he knew he had to for everyone's sake. He knew that if he stayed things would get too complicated and Marina didn't need that…nor did the baby.
He took a deep breath and finished her sentence for her. "You don't want to see me again. I got it." He looked at her, trying to remain in tact but was failing miserably. He took a big sniff and held his head high so the tears that were brimming in his eyes wouldn't escape. "Fine, I'll go."
She couldn't believe he was giving up so easily. She expected him to yell and scream and beg for her to stay but he didn't. A part of her was so angry that he had done this but when he leaned down and brushed his lips across her forehead, she knew why he gave up. He knew they had to for now until things could be normal.
He pulled her close to him and felt her warm body against his. He implanted every touch, every smell, every thing that this moment encompassed so he wouldn't forget it in years to come. He would return to her someday and they would be together, but for now, he had to go.
He reached down and placed his hand under her chin to raise it. Their eyes met through the cloud of tears and then their lips joined one last time before he walked out the door and out of her life.
Jes wiped the tears out of her eyes when Marina finally stopped talking. She stood and replaced the picture on the mantel before returning to the couch.
"That's the last time I saw him. I guess you know what happened after that?" She said as she wiped her own tears from her face.
Jes knew what she was talking about. Last summer, the group was traveling over seas when they were involved in a plane crash. Many of the passengers made it out okay but there was one of those that didn't. He was a part of a famous group bent on filling the airways with their music. He died almost instantly when the plane touched ground. The others had several broken bones and one of them stayed in the hospital for a couple of weeks but it was their youngest member that never saw the light of day again.
They all recuperated and began the hard road back to stardom. Each member tried to pick the pieces up of their lives but without their fifth member, it was no use. The group released their last album and then split up a few months ago. They all decided that without him, they didn't want to be a group any more. He was a part of their lives and now that he was gone, they wouldn't be the same.
Jes began to let the tears stain her face when she saw that Marina had a solemn look. She was just so tired of the crying, the pain, the torment of it all that tears wouldn't come any more.
No one in her life had ever believed her story but Jes did. How could she not? The world thought they had ended their relationship, at least those who thought they ever were together in the first place. But they never did. They kept in touch and wrote letters back and forth for months leading up to the birth of their son.
Marina sent pictures to him all the time and took videos to show him. They had planned on spending the holidays together and he would finally get to see his son, but then the plane crash happened and they never met.
Marina found that after his death, she got a call from a lawyer saying that she was a recipient of part of his fortune he had obtained. She was shocked beyond belief that he had put her and the baby in his will and even more shocked when the check from his estate came to her. She would never have to work again. He gave her way too much, in her mind.
She ended up buying this house and settling down here in the town he loved the most. It was his hometown that she grew to love. She left Utah and came here to the place that helped raise the man she fell in love with. She felt his presence here and she never looked for anything else.
She finished up school and was now working on the house she bought. She didn't have a staff like Jes had thought. All she had was a kind old woman who would come and baby-sit for her on occasion. She didn't need anyone else around. Too many people would make her feel a part of the world again and right now, all she wanted was to be alone, with her son and her memories.
She knew that one day she would get back out in the world and see what it had to offer but until then, she was content in this house and now she had another reason to stay: Jes.
"Listen." She began as she walked over to the young girl still trying to contain her tears. "Mrs. Johnson does a lot of babysitting for me but I was wondering if maybe you would like to take her place from time to time. I could really use someone young around here to liven the place up and…I could really use a friend."
Jes found the tears streaming down her face now. She couldn't hold them back any longer. She didn't say a word but simply reached for the older woman and hugged her tight.
"Thank you" came from her mouth. "Thank you for believing me."
THE END : (