"Can you believe him? I can’t, come on; he called ME stubborn and pig–headed! ME!" cried Sarah.
"You are neither of those things, sweety. You aren’t, I swear, scouts’ honor!" her best friend Justin replied. They had been on the phone for nearly an hour, and his attempts at consoling her were obsolete efforts.
"You’re not a boy scout, you dork," he could hear her smile through the phone, he could always tell the expression on her face by the way her voice sounded, and always what mood she was in by the tone and pitch. He adored the sound of her voice.
"What’s your point? I’m just a poor boy, from a poor family, can’t I dream?" he said in a singsong voice laughter entering his voice.
"Yeah, sure you are. As if you’ve ever know what it’s like to be ‘po folk,’ yeah, wait I’m sure you have, I can only imagine the personal hell you suffer when your perfect, delicate little ass sits on a dusty chair, in your mini-mansion in the white upper-class suburbs of Orlando. Yeah Justin, go cry me a river," said Sarah.
"So you think my ass is perfect…" Justin laughed, "What are you talking about, you loser? You live right next door in a house almost an exact copy of my own, so shut up," Just replied. He leaned back in his computer chair until he could see her looking out the window, across the gap to his house. He took his hand off the desk, as he held the phone with the other, and he could hear her laughter in stereo in his ears as he fell to the ground with a crash.
"Oh my God, I wish I was there to see that!" she leaned further out the window but her view got no better, "That sure sounded like it hurt, are you okay?" she said in-between laughing.
"Yeah, no thanks to you," he grumbled. She could hear that he was pouting in his voice, it was so cute to her. They had been friends ever since she moved in next to him when they were both 5 years old. They even had the same birthday, and so many people thought of them as a perfect pair, but neither of them let their relationship go past friendship. Although both secretly wished they were the people the other was with when he or she had a boy or girlfriend.
"Aww, I’m sorry, want me to come over there and kiss it better?" she laughed.
"No," he pouted again, now he was standing at his window with his arms crossed. "Wow, you certainly seem to be feeling better Sar," Justin said when he saw that smile that he loved, playing across her face.
"Yeah, a little, but actually I think your falling sent me over the edge," she continued to laugh.
"Okay, so that’s so not funny anymore, but seriously, you’re too good for him, he treats you so rottenly and you don’t deserve that, no one deserves that, least of all, you. Why do you put up with it?" Justin asked. He ran a hand through his curly blonde hair and sighed. He’d been trying to drop hints that he wanted to be more than just her friend, for months now, and she wasn’t picking up on any of them.
Sarah’s blue eyes glistened with tears, she knew he was right, even though it killed her inside to admit it. "I know, but in some strange denomination, I love him… hey hold on, the other line is beeping in," she said.
Justin waited for about five minutes and then he hung up, he knew by the way she quickly wiped away her tears, as if he could tell she’d been crying, and the way she flopped on her bad like she always did when she spoke with him.
"Ugh, when is she going to get a clue that I could treat her so much better than he ever has and will?" Justin said as he leaned back on his bed, burying his face in the sea of pillows.
~ 2 Weeks Later ~
"Where’s Justin?" Sarah shouted as she ran through his front door being confronted by his mother in the long hallway.
"Sorry Sarah, he went out a little while ago with some new girl, sorry Honey, he should be back momentarily though if you want to wait you’re welcome to watch some TV or play games with Jon," Lynn, Justin’s mother, said, and her other son, Jonathan appeared next to her.
"Some new girl?" Sarah asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, they met last night at a club and she picked him up in her BMW about 3 hours ago, haven’t heard from him since," replied Lynn.
"Oh, okay, well, I guess I’ll be heading home, can you have him call me as soon as he gets in? It’s really important," said Sarah as she let out a deep sigh.
"Sure, is something wrong Sweety? You seem anxious…" Lynn asked as she led her back to the front door.
"No, I just had some really good news for him, that’s all," she replied as she turned to walk out the door. "Bye, and thanks."
"No problem, if you need to talk, I’m here," said Lynn, she shut the door after watching that Sarah had made it successfully across the lawn and back to her house. She picked up Jonathan who was waving aimlessly out the open door.
A tear trickled down Sarah’s face as she re-entered her own house. She ran up the stairs in disappointment. Earlier that day she had had a long talk with her boyfriend, Heath, and they had decided to call it quits. Okay, it wasn’t actually that mutual, Sarah actually walked in on him making out with the person she had been led to believe was his cousin, and he’s not Southern so she knew it was a rouse.
She was surprisingly relieved, and she was unsure why, although she was beginning to think she knew. The last few weeks Justin had been so sweet to her and she was noticing him more and more as someone she could totally love as something more than a friend. She wished he felt the same, but with the latest revelation, a new girl, she was unsure of their future.
Sarah rested her head on her pillow letting the tears flow outs of her eyes freely, forming a puddle on her blue pillowcase.
~ Meanwhile ~
"Justin, Sarah wants you to call her right away!" Lynn said. Justin entered the house with his new friend in toe. "Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize we had company, I’m Lynn, Justin’s mother."
"Hi, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Victoria," said the girl, moving to shake Lynn’s hand.
"I met this beautiful woman at that club last night and thought how she would be so perfect for JC, they totally clicked when I introduced them this afternoon," Justin explained, not wanting his mother to get the wrong idea.
"Aww, Justin, shush! You’ll embarrass me!" Victoria swept her light brown hair out of her hazel eyes before playfully hitting Justin in the arm.
"It’s true!" Justin laughed. "I also wanted to thank you for offering to baby-sit Jon for me tonight, I have to talk to Sarah about a few things, man that’s right I have to call her."
"Oh, it’s no problem, I hope your mom doesn’t mind I’m taking over the job, but I just love kids, I have a younger brother of my own, he’s a little older than Jon but I certainly know what it’s like to be around kids," said Victoria.
"Oh, that’s fine, you seem like a fine young girl, oh that reminds me, I have to go meet my husband at the airport. It was great meeting you Victoria, have fun with Sarah, Justin, and Jon, be good," Lynn said as she grabbed her purse and kissed each of her sons goodbye, "Oh, and the baby Stephen is upstairs napping, thanks a lot."
"No problem," said Victoria as she waved goodbye.
"Thanks a lot, you’re welcome to anything in the kitchen, use the phone, internet whatever, just don’t let Jon burn anything down, he’s in that ‘what do these sticks with the red end do when I strike them on something?’ stage, it’s rough. I’m going to go change and call Sarah, and here’s the layout," he said as he pointed and named where every room was, leading her around the house.
When he was done he went to his bedroom and shut the door. He dialed Sarah’s phone number, it rang several times and there was no answer. He looked across the yard to her bedroom window and the blinds were shut tightly.
~ Meanwhile ~
"Why didn’t he tell me he had a date?" Sarah said, tears stained her face, and her eyes stung. She clenched them shut and buried her face deeper into her pillow. When the phone rang she looked at it as if it were a foreign object, and she knew he was on the other end. She threw one of her pillows at it, and knocked the cordless phone off the cradle and laid back down.
"Why isn’t she answering her phone? I can see that her light is on…" Justin said softly to himself. He picked up the phone again realizing what was going on.
~*~*~*
Sarah sniffled for a moment and reached for her phone, she didn’t want him to know she was crying. She picked up the receiver and all she heard was a dial tone.
~*~*~*
"You told her I was on a date, didn’t you Mom? Ugh, I knew it," he said into the phone. Now he knew why she wasn’t answering the phone. She probably thought that he had committed the immortal sin of best-friendship; keeping a date or new girlfriend a secret.
After hanging up the phone with his mother, who had by then reached the airport, Justin picked up his phone again, but he heard voices on it. He took the cordless phone downstairs and saw that Victoria had the phone perched on her shoulder while she served the two children dinner. Stephen was in his highchair making a mess and Jonathan was sitting in a booster seat with a napkin stuffed down the front of his shirt, also making a mess.
"So, JC, after I get out of baby-sitting do you want to hang out?" she asked, a huge smile one her face.
"Hey, Vik, he can come over if he wants, but I really need to use the phone!" Justin said, appearing in the kitchen doorway.
"Hey, I have to go, Justin needs the phone but he says you can come over, if you want…" she said into the phone. She held it up to her ear now that she had placed the pan of macaroni and cheese back on the stove. "Okay, see you soon," she said, then hung up.
"Thanks Vik, I have to get Sarah and she isn’t answering, so I have a plan," Justin said, giving her a hug, then running back upstairs.
"No problem," said Victoria before returning her attention to the kids. "Are you making a mess?" she said in a baby voice.
~*~*~*
"Ugh, he hung up," Sarah said as she let out a deep sigh. She got off of her bed and straightened her clothes before she went downstairs. No one was home, they were spending the day at the beach, so she went into the kitchen and took a pint of chocolate peanut butter ice cream out of the freezer, and a spoon from the drawer. She took a seat in front of the big screen TV and turned it on as she drowned her sorrows in ice cream.
Before she could get the first bite into her mouth the doorbell rang. "Who is it?" she shouted, but no answer was returned. She went to the door but no one was there, but a car was pulling away. She looked down at the ground and saw five take-out boxes of Chinese food.
"I didn’t order this!" she screamed as if the car, that was now a block away, could hear her.
"But I did, and there’s plenty of…" Justin appeared from behind the bushes, and he was interrupted.
"Sticky sauce? Sweet, I love that stuff," she said as she opened one of the containers.
"Can I talk to you?" he asked, laughing at her display.
"I guess, come on in," she replied. They picked up the food and brought it into the living room and set it down on the coffee table.
"I have something to show you before anything else, come with me," he said. He took her hand and led her over to his house. "I know you talked to my mom earlier, and she made it seem like I had a date, and I can tell you’re upset, so let me show you something."
He opened the front door of his house and brought her into the living room where JC and Victoria were sitting on the couch in mid-kiss. He didn’t want to interrupt them so after he knew that Sarah had seen it they went back outside.
"So, she’s not your girlfriend?" Sarah said. She felt stupid for thinking he wouldn’t tell her about meeting another girl.
"Do you actually think I wouldn’t tell you if I met someone I wanted to date? Of course I would! So, let’s go have that Chinese food, I know you have something to tell me, my mom said you did," said Justin as they made their way back to her house.
She turned off the TV and took a few bites of her favorite, chicken wings with the famous sticky sauce, before she told him what had happened with Heath.
"You mean… oh my God, he’s been cheating on you for so long! I’m surprised you didn’t go on a murderous rampage," Justin said as he bit into a dumpling.
"Nah, because, I don’t know, I’m probably the most selfish person in the world but there’s someone else I think I’m in love with," Sarah said, not letting on that that person was Justin.
"Oh really?" Justin’s heart sank, "Well, I have something to tell you too, can I go first?" he asked.
"Sure," said Sarah, seeing the look in his eye.
"Well, I did meet someone, and I really like her, and I wanted you to be the first to know who it is," he could see tears forming in her eyes, "Sweety, it’s you. You can call me selfish, but all I want is your love, and you can call me hopeless, but I’m hopelessly in love, and obviously no one is perfect, but in my eyes you are, and I’ve searched my soul and I know that it’s you," before he could say anything else, Sarah put a finger to his lip to quiet him.
"Well, what’s wrong with being selfish?" she said. She leaned in and shut her eyes tightly. They kissed gently and wrapped their arms around one another in a deep embrace.
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