There was a knock on the door, and Rachel bounded over to find Justin waiting on the other side. And he was...early. “Okay, who are you, and what have you done with fro boy?” She quipped.
“What? I can’t show up on time once and a while?”
“Justin, JC isn't even here yet.” She pointed out.
“O damn, I AM early. Wow, how did this happen?” Justin asked, puzzled. Rachel laughed and let him in.
“The guys aren’t supposed to be here for another 1/2 hour, which means we have 20 minutes before JC shows up. You want the grand tour?” Justin shrugged and followed her as she lead him around. She lead him upstairs and to the second door on the right.
“And this is my room.” she said, waiving her hands dramatically towards the door. She swung it open and they walked in together. The room was definitely her, Justin thought. It smelled like a Bath and Body Works store in there. The scent of flowers or one of those fruits with an absurd name like pearberry hung in the air, giving the room a fun and cozy atmosphere. Her walls were covered with posters and pictures of various friends and family. He shelves were cluttered with random junk mixed in with her souvenirs and little trinkets. Clothes were scattered around, but it was still semi-clean. He walked over to her stereo and began flipping through her CD’s. She picked up the magazine that had been lying on her bed and began looking through it casually. Justin smiled when he came across the two things he had been looking for.
“I see you have our CD’s.” he said casually, a victorious grin plastered on his face.
“Yea, they make great coasters.” Rachel smirked.
“ooh! you're going to pay for that one lil’ girl” he advanced on her, a devilish grin on his face.
“oh am I?” she raised an eyebrow, challenging him even as she backed up. As she retreated her legs smacked into the side of the bed, and her knees bent as she flopped onto it.
Liz arrived moments later, and since she practically lived at Rachel’s house anyway she didn’t even bother to knock. She walked into the house and walked smack into Lance. He didn’t even turn around when her face made contact with his back. She stepped back with a groan before finding out exactly what had frozen Lance and JC and Lance. A muffled scream came from upstairs,
“oh my god! JUSTIN!....OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!” Liz’s jaw dropped. She looked from Lance to JC, and all three quickly bolted up the steps.
“hey guys, I didn’t hear you come in.” Rachel said breathlessly.
“oh my god...you...Justin...screams...i thought...”JC stuttered. Lance just nodded, wide eyed. Rachel sat straight up, and shoved Justin off her with one hand, burying her face in the other one. Justin slid off the bed and onto the floor with a dull thud. Liz just started laughing.
“I can’t beleive you honestly thought...” Rachel trailed off, looking horrified. “I swear, you best get your minds out of the gutter.” She said threateningly. Liz just laughed harder, clutching Lance’s arm for support as his deep chuckle filled the room, almost in harmony with JC’s higher one. Justin grinned up at her from his position on the floor.
“oh come on, it is kinda funny.” he said, eyes twinkling.
“Kiss my ass Justin.” She said coldly, barely holding back laughter.
“in a heartbeat, doll.” He said, flashing that million dollar smile of his. That smile plastered across magazine covers everywhere. The smile that had the power to make normally rational girls scream and cry. That smile, when aimed at you directly, was almost lethal. Rachel rolled her eyes. “men,” she grumbled, stalking out of the room.
Chris and Joey showed up about 10 minutes later, followed by Erika and Elyssa. Everyone was scattered randomly around the living room. Christi showed up next. She had already met everyone except Joey and Justin, and after being introduced to Joey he immediately began testing out his latest collection of cheesy pick up lines on her, making her laugh loudly. Justin was feeling a little out of the loop, being the only one who didn’t really know her. Just then they heard the door swing open.
“okay everyone, now is when the fun starts, Chelsea has arrived!” A female voice shouted. The guys looked up to see a petite blonde bust into the living room, arms thrown out. No doubt about it, the girl radiated energy and confidence.
“who’s this chick?” Justin sounded ticked. Chris, seeing her back down slightly at Justin’s remark, stepped forward and patted her arm reassuringly.
“the curly one, he means no harm.” Chris dragged out the last word. Rachel smiled, recognizing the line from one of her favorite movies.
“he’s very, very short on charm.” Rachel continued, exaggerating the last syllable. Chelsea smiled, continuing on with the scene.
“You have a great gift for rhyme.”
“yes, yes, some other time.” Chris grinned.
“hey Chelsea, are the rocks ahead?” Rachel asked, smiling.
“if they are, we’ll all be dead.” She shot back.
“stop rhyming now, I mean it!” Chris broke in sternly.
“Anybody want a peanut?” Rachel and Chelsea chorused. The three of them looked at each other and laughed out loud.
“oh lord, not another one.” JC groaned jokingly. They turned to see everyone looking at them like they were nuts. Amused smiles on their faces.
“You can’t tell me ya'll haven’t seen The Princess Bride?” Rachel asked. Everyone just shrugged. “Well, we are just gonna have to watch it then.”
“um, hun, we are watching Fight Club, remember?” Liz asked.
“ooooooh, right! We’ll watch princess bride another night, because Fight Club is the best movie ever.” Rachel concluded. She was met with a chorus of ‘hell yea’s from the girls. Erika grabbed the popcorn out of the microwave and plopped down onto the couch between JC and Joey. Rachel popped the DVD in before settling down on the floor between Justin and Christi.
She looked around the room and smiled to herself. In the short time that they’d known each other, they’d become incredibly close. It was amazing how quickly they had all accepted each other. And movie night had become their little tradition. It started the week before when Rachel, Liz, Erika, and Elyssa had driven up to Bowie to JC’s house. The guys were all over there, and they just hung out and watched movies in JC’s basement. That afternoon, somewhere between the playful arguing and long talks about nothing in particular, they had bonded.
You couldn’t find a stranger group of friends, but oddly enough, it worked. In some weird way, they clicked. Returning to the present, Rachel sighed, content to be surrounded by the most important people in her life. Liz, Erika, Elyssa and Chelsea, who had known her forever and were considered sisters rather then friends, as well as Christi and the guys, who in a short amount of time had managed to find their way into her heart and into her little “family”. It was a highly dysfunctional family for sure, but thats what made it so special. She silently thanked whoever had decided to put such wonderful people in her life, before returning her attention to the movie where Edward Norton was busy beating the crap out of himself.
“Only they could turn fight club into a chick flick.” Joey muttered. The other guys mumbled in agreement. Christi just laughed and Rachel reluctantly hit play.
They finished the movie rather uneventfully (well, as uneventful as anything ever was around them.) Soon everyone had left besides Liz, Lance, JC, and Erika. Lance was in the corner talking animatedly into his cell phone while JC and Erika were involved in a playful argument over on the couch. They seemed oblivious to the fact that they were slowly inching closer to each other. Rachel looked over at Liz, who was helping her clean up the aftermath of a popcorn fight.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” She asked softly, glancing casually in Erika and JC’s direction, her voice full of mischief. Liz looked over to see Erika playfully hit JC's arm. He laughed and hugged her, and it seemed as if they lingered in the embrace just for a moment.
“oh most definitely.” Liz replied with a smile.
“No, thats ok Bryan, I understand” Rachel sighed. “No really, I’ll just do something with the girls.. Its totally cool...uh huh...talk to ya later.” She clicked the phone off. “god forbid you should find a little time to spend with your girlfriend!” she growled angrily at the dial tone.
Stop it Rachel. she mentally scolded herself. You’re being clingy. Besides, its not like he’s just ditching you, he had stuff to do. If he could go out with you he would. Not that he bothered to mention what....Screw this, I can go to the movies by myself. She pulled out the paper and scanned the list of movie times quickly before grabbing her purse and driving over to the theater.
She got there about 20 minutes later and arriver to find the lights dimming. She found a seat up towards the top, but since the theater was pretty packed she had to sit over on the side.
About 40 minutes into the movie she noticed a couple sitting on the isle about 5 rows up, making out like there was no tomorrow. Rachel almost chocked on her popcorn when she saw them. wow, the glare from the screen makes that guy look like Bryan. Hah, yea right. I have one overactive imagination, thats for sure. She rolled her eyes at herself and pushed the thoughts out of her mind as she lost herself in the movie.
ooooh! I know! Sour Patch Kids! she thought excitedly. The thought crossed her mind that it was slightly pathetic for an 18 year old to be this excited over a candy, but she ignored it and it was forgotten just as quickly as it had come. On her way out she grabbed her soda, just incase that kid decided to strike again.
Making her way down the stairs in the dark, she kept her eyes on the stairs to avoid tripping down them. She only looked up when she smacked into the railing. She rubbed her side with her free hand, whining to herself about how her day was going, but she smiled when she caught sight of the couple she had seen earlier in the row in front of her. She couldn’t help thinking how cute they were.
They sorta remind me of me and.. “Bryan?” The last word came out as a question. She was shocked when the boy’s face detached itself from the girls and a pair of guilt filled eyes looked up at her.
“Rachel...I can explain....this isn’t what it looks like.” Bryan assured her. Rachel staired at him with disbelief, feeling like she had just had the wind knocked out of her. For a moment she couldn’t decide whether to be hurt or angry, both emotions were swirling inside her. Anger won out though. She wouldn’t let him see how much he hurt her. No, anger was definatley the way to go.
“Oh, so my boyfriend WASN’T just ramming his tounge down another girls throat?” At this point, her voice had reached a level not generally tolerated in movie theaters. However, everyone had abandoned the movie in favor of watching the drama that was unfolding right before their eyes, so nobody even tried to interupt.
“How could you? You could have at least had the decency to break up with me, instead of just messing around behind my back.” Her voice shook with anger. Bryan was surprised at just how intimidating somone so much shorter then him could actually be when pissed off.
“I... I never wanted to break up with you..” He stammered.
"Oh, wrong answer." the guy in front of him muttered, shaking his head.
“Excuse me?! You thought you could be in a relationship with me and just get some action on the side? Did you think I would be ok with this? No, I’m guessing you weren’t planning on telling me. You just wanted a lil’ piece of Amanda here, right?” She seethed, glairing at him with disgust. Slowly she turned towards the girl next to him.
“You know what Amanda, I feel sorry for you. Who would let themselves be used like that?” She asked, her face clearly showing her disdain for the girl. Amanda had always had a reputation as the school slut, but now Rachel new exactly why.
“maybe some girls work like that, but I sure as hell don’t.” She said, fixing her glare on Bryan once again. She turned to walk away, when his voice stopped her.
“Please don’t. I know I messed up, but give me a chance to fix it.” His tone was almost pleading. Rachel laughed bitterly as she slowly turned back around.
“Go to hell Bryan. I should dump this soda all over you, but you know what?” She hissed, “you’re not worth the three bucks I paid for it.”
With that she turned and stormed out of the theater. Never seeing Bryan’s remorseful and slightly embarassed look, amanda’s smug smile, or the teenagers in the back row who started throwing Gummi Bears in Bryan and Amanda’s general direction. She didn’t even hear the applause people had given her little performance. She was to busy getting herself out of the theater before her anger ran out and all the hurt that it had burried came to the surface. She ran out of the theater, throwing her soda out on the way, and willing herself not to cry.
Yes, yes, yes here we go!
U gotta take me home!
next chapter, i must go on!
Why are you singing? you people are on drugs! take me back to the fairytales main page NOW!