He stared at her. She was wearing a pair of baggy cargo pants that hung so
low on her hips, he thought they were going to fall off. The white tank top that
she wore wasn't long enough to reach her pants and Justin was almost drooling
over that thin strip of skin she was showing. Her hair was pulled back in a
ponytail and she was smiling at something that--
Justin sat nonplussed
in his seat. For the first time, he noticed who she was with. Romero was not a
problem, but the other guy most definitely was. 'What the hell is he doing in
her hotel?' Justin frowned. 'Please, please, don't let him have spent the night
with her.'
"Uh oh, Justin your competition's headed this way," Chris
chuckled.
Heather slapped him on the arm. Hard. The 'smack' reverberated
through the lobby.
"Damn," JC and Joey laughed.
"Ow! What the
hell did you do that for?" Chris rubbed the sore spot on his arm.
"Play
nice or I'll make you go to your room."
"Yes mommy," he murmured and
laid his head on her chest.
Joey, Mr. Flirting-is-my-middle-name, sat
forward and prepared to coach Justin on exactly what to do. "OK, first off all,
don't worry about that guy. He's old news, I know this for a fact. Second, wipe
that frown off your face before she looks over here. Third, when you go over and
talk to her, and you will, apologize for running out on her last night, but
don't mention the psycho stalker bitch. If you mention her, she'll just think
'Oh so that's the way he treats females' and will never talk to you again. Just
say you saw someone that you had to talk to or that something came up--"
"Joey, he was talking to Maddie, I'm sure something DID come up," Lance
deadpanned.
Justin wasn't paying any attention to his friends. He
watched Maddie as she said goodbye to her 'friend', gave him a hug and sent him
on his way. Romero went to the front desk for something and Maddie was left
alone. Without thinking about it, he pushed himself out of his chair and walked
over to her.
She looked up; first she seemed surprised to see him, then
her eyes narrowed, then she shot him a tiny smile. "Hey Justin. What da dealy?"
"Nothing. We missed our flight so we're all just chilling here," he
responded.
"Oh. Well, that sucks."
"Yeah really."
There
was a pregnant silence between them as Justin racked his brain for something to
say and Maddie fervently wished that she were somewhere else. He wore a black
t-shirt that clung to his chest, clearly showing his amazing pectoral muscles.
He'd covered his curls with a baseball cap worn backwards. He looked entirely
too attractive and Maddie was having trouble remembering why she couldn't, or
rather, shouldn't hook up with him. And at the moment, he seemed so sweetly
insecure, shuffling his weight back and forth and seeming to not know where to
look.
"Maddie…" he began. He looked down at his feet, snuck a peek at
her and then looked down at his hands as he began to pick at the skin on the
palm of his ring finger. "I just…I just wanted to know…"
"Yes?" Maddie
prompted.
He took a deep breath to fortify his nerves and let it out in
a rush of words: "I just wanted to know why you hate me so much."
Maddie
was dumbfounded. Not that he'd figured out her feelings, she'd been obvious with
that, but that he'd called her on it. She wasn't sure why but she felt a
tingling in her stomach. She tucked her bottom lip between her teeth,
inadvertently drawing Justin's attention to her mouth, as she thought of a
diplomatic way to answer his question.
"It's not that I hate you,
Justin, because I don't. I will admit that there are parts of your personality
that I don't like but that…Justin…Justin!"
Justin had been focused so
intensely on Maddie's mouth and the way she formed words and getting so turned
on by just watching her talk that he hadn't really heard a word she'd said.
Hearing his name snapped him out of his daze. "Huh?"
Maddie put her
hands on her hips and glared up at him. "You weren't even listening to me. See,
this is why I never talk to you, you don't know how to treat people! You ask me
a question and don't even have the decency to listen to the answer! And I'm not
gonna say anything about the way you treat your fans!"
'Fans?' Justin
wondered dumbly. 'What the hell do they have to do with this? And what the hell
have I just done?'
"You are an egotistical, self-centered, over-rated
prima donna who thinks the world revolves around you and your pelvic thrusts.
Well, that ain't how real life works, mister. You wanna talk to me, you better
check your ego at the door cause next time I won't be so nice."
With
that, she turned on her heel and stormed off to find Romero.
Justin
stood there staring after her. He felt like one of those cartoon characters who
drank a lot of water and then got stuck with a thousand needles and the water
drained out of the needle holes. Except it was his pride that was draining out
of him, shrinking him down to size. What she'd said was only a variation of what
his friends had jokingly said at least a hundred times. But it never sunk in
when they said it.
He was stung, horribly so. He saw himself through her
eyes and he didn't like the picture he made.
He slowly walked back to
his friends. They had watched the entire scene. They hadn't been able to hear
what was said but their body language told it all. At first, they'd joked about
how unsure of himself Justin seemed. They all saw the look on Maddie's face
after Justin had finally blurted out whatever he'd wanted to say. They'd watched
and mentally tried to warn him as Justin became hypnotized by Maddie's lips.
They'd seen Maddie stiffen in indignation and they cringed when she blasted him
out of the water. So it was that Justin's return was greeted by silence. For
once, even Chris was at a loss for words.