Jen and Ashlee had gotten up and were out of the house by 3pm, but not without some heavy begging and pleading on the guys’ part to stay a bit longer.
“Come ON Jen, it wont take you THAT long to get back to school,” Joey whined, rolling his eyes and following Jen around as she picked up last minute things off the couch.
“Joey,” Jen started as she picked up a shoe off the couch, “I know you wont be able to grasp this concept, but please, try. Ashlee and I? We go to college. Higher education. What that means in simpler terms is…we have a LOT of work to do, I have a seven page paper to proof-read and Ashlee has an exam on Tuesday that she needs to study for. We aren’t as lucky as you five pieces-o-meat who come outta high school and are on top of the world.”
Joey still followed her around, and Jen stopped suddenly. He slammed into her and she jolt forward, then spun on her heel quickly, and batted him in the arm with the sneaker she still held.
“Joseph I swear if I hadn’t known you for so long-“
“You would date me?” he interrupted and wiggled his eyebrows mock seductively. Jen rolled her eyes…and just left him standing alone.
“Is that a yes?” he shouted, his grin evident in his voice.
Jen entered the kitchen shaking her head at Joey’s ever-playful antics. She glanced around and smiled sweetly as she noticed Justin hunched over looking in the fridge for something. She crept over, a plan forming quickly in her head. Still holding the sneaker, she was finally in position, directly behind him.
“Don’t even think about it J,” Justin said cooly, not even looking over his shoulder. Jen stared at him dumb-founded; the smile completely wiped off her face.
“Huh? How did you…?” Jen trailed off as her face wrinkled in confusion. Justin grabbed a bottle of water and a handful of grapes out of the refrigerator and turned around to face her.
“I’m just too smart for you girl.”
“Whatever. Anyway we are gonna head on out now, so I came to say good-bye,” Jen said, playing with the sneaker in her hand, distracting herself from looking at him.
Justin watched her nervous tendencies and laughed to himself, reading her like a book. He walked over and took the shoe out of her hand, her head snapping up to look at him.
“It’s just a shoe, Jen. It’s gonna be OK once you leave, no tears, trust me,” he said softly with a smirk on his face. Jen smiled and rolled her eyes, a laugh escaping her lips.
“Thanks Justin, I didn’t think I could part with it.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty attached to it too,” he added, his eyes not leaving hers. She laughed a bit louder and grabbed the shoe from his hands quickly.
“Typical, you and you 140 other pairs of shoes,” she muttered and tossed it out of the kitchen.
“OW!” she heard echoing in. Justin busted up laughing, doubling over holding his sides.
“Next time don’t eavesdrop Chris!” Jen yelled, hearing Chris’ continued moaning. Justin caught his breath and pulled Jen to him in a tight hug.
“C’mere girl,” he said and buried his head into her hair, inhaling deeply.
Jen wrapped her arms tightly around his waist and leaned her head against his chest and closed her eyes briefly. After a few seconds, they broke apart and smiled at each other. Justin leaned down and kissed her slowly, pulling her back into his arms. Jen tilted her head and deepened the kiss, her hands caressing his face gently. They took their time, enjoying each other’s presence. Jen broke away first, trailing her hand down his chin and over his lips gently before dropping it down to her side.
“OK I am going now,” she said snapping out of her trance. Justin nodded and followed her out of the kitchen. The guys were waiting in the foyer giving Ashlee a hard time about leaving them.
“Ash, I cannot believe you are ditching us to go back with JEN. I mean, HELLO, she is the biggest dork. I’m serious, I know her,” Chris said. Ashlee was laughing hysterically at how serious Chris was being.
“Chris leave the poor girl alone. She has to drive back with babydoll for two hours, we all know she’s gonna wanna jump outta the car already,” JC added.
Jen stood there with her jaw dropped, totally unbelieving of her friends. “Seriously Ashlee, that Jen is just totally awful, I mean, she’s so dorky that even her friends bag on her while she’s standing RIGHT BEHIND THEM,” Jen deadpanned, while everyone’s head snapped up.
“Jenko! We were just talking about…the jeep!” Lance said, trying desperately to cover for his friends. Jen put up her hand to halt Lance’s explanation and pointed at Chris and JC.
“You two…carry our bags to the car. Then you’ll get your beat downs.”
“Ohhhh, busted!” Justin joked. Jen spun around eyed him. He raised his hands in innocence and his eyebrows shot up to his hairline.
“Baby you know I love ya,” he added, grabbing her waist and swinging her around in a circle. He put her down and planted a kiss on her lips that rocked her to her toes, but ended as quickly as it started.
“Man, that’s so not fair. I wonder if I would get off the hook if I kissed her,” Chris mumbled, grabbing Jen’s duffel bag and groaning at the weight of it.
“Hey Miss Thang! Did you pack dead people in here or something?” Chris yelled over to her, practically dragging the bag out the door. Jen walked away from Justin and grabbed the bag from Chris, picking it up effortlessly.
“You are SUCH a wimp CK,” she answered, walking out to her car and tossing it in the back seat. The guys crowded around the car and looked at the girls.
“OK, hugs now,” Ashlee said and ran over to each guy, giving them a warm embrace. Jen followed suit, kissing and hugging Lance, JC, Joey, and Chris. She turned towards the last member and smiled.
“I had fun this weekend,” she said, her eyes sparkling. Justin nodded and smiled back at her, giving her a look that melted her heart.
“Call me when you get back…”
“Yes DAD…”
“Shut up.”
“Bite me.”
“Tempting…”
“Theirs is a loving relationship,” JC commented, nudging Ashlee’s shoulder as the rest of the group watched the exchange. They all nodded in agreement as Justin leaned over and hugged Jen tightly, dropping a quick kiss on her lips. He then whispered a few words to her that only the two could hear, and they hugged once more.
“Things are going to get very interesting,” Lance started to say. The guys looked over at him and nodded, thinking the same thing, while Ashlee looked baffled. Chris noticed her puzzled face and filled in the blanks.
“We leave for tour in a few weeks.”
The girls were pretty quiet on the trip back; both lost in their own thoughts about the weekend as the CD player was blasting Destiny’s Child. The girls were soon singing along to “Bugaboo” with their hair whipping in the breeze, honking at other cars as they drove by.
They got into town and were soon on campus, parking the car and unloading their things. Once they were inside and unpacked, the girls flopped down on the futon.
“Jen we got messages,” Ashlee groaned as she leaned over and pressed the button to play them.
“If Justin’s voice is on their tellin us to call him…” Jen started.
“It would be so extremely cute,” Ashlee finished and glanced at her. Jen rolled her eyes, but Ashlee noticed the slight blush touching her friend’s cheeks.
“Hi J…um…Joey…yeah, Joey said that you forgot…” Justin’s voice came over the machine and Jen had to smile. He was making up excuses and it was just too funny.
“…you forgot your socks. What? Socks? Joey, that was so stupid…wait, am I still on here? OK yeah, anyway, whatever, I know you know I’m callin to check up on you so call me already girl, I miss you! Seeya!”
“Typical. Totally and utterly…typical,” Jen chuckled, shaking her head. She dug into her purse and pulled out her finished roll of film from the weekend.
“I’m heading to Walmart to drop this off, do you wanna come and take yours?”
Ashlee looked in her purse at her camera. “No, mine’s not finished yet, and I don’t think I need anything from there. I really have to start studying for my exam though, so you can go without me.”
Jen stood and stretched her body slowly. “God I’m sick of the car…but I wanna get these pictures developed! I am sure there are some really cute ones on here…” she muttered to herself as she roamed around the room.
“Call Justin before you leave. God knows you will walk out the door and the phone will ring and I will have to deal with him,” Ashlee said and gathered her books and notes.
“I’ll call him from the car!” Jen answered as she walked out the door. Not more than two seconds later, the phone started ringing. Ashlee looked at the phone and shook her head.
“Hi Justin, she will call you from the car in about two seconds, I have to study now, talk to you later!” Ashlee said as she picked up the phone and hung up, not bothering to look up from her books and check the caller ID.
On the other end, Justin stared at the phone in shock. He hung up and with his hand still on the receiver, the phone rang.
“Hello?” he asked, still baffled at what happened not more than a minute ago.
“Hey baby, how YOU doin?”
Justin smiled as he heard the familiar voice echo in his ear, and he lowered the tone of his voice like she had.
“Better now that you are on the phone with me…”
The week went pretty quickly, and the girls were getting closer and closer to finals week, meaning their workloads had almost tripled from the average amount. Before they knew it, it was the weekend before finals and 24-hour quiet hours had begun.
“I hate finals, I hate finals, I hate finals…” Ashlee muttered as she sorted her notebooks and textbooks across the futon.
“Tell me about it! How do they expect us to know all of this?”
“I don’t know, Jen. I wanna scream and blast the music, but I’m not getting written up for that shit.”
Jen nodded in agreement as she continued writing definitions on her note cards. The girls were quiet for another half hour before the silence was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Thank GOD for distractions,” Ashlee commented and jumped from her seat. She opened the door and looked around, but no one was there.
“What the hell?”
“What?” Jen asked, looking at her friend curiously. Ashlee closed the door confused and walked back to the couch, shaking her head.
“No one was there, who knows what’s going on,” she said, grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge and plopping back down with her books. Again, there was a knock on the door and Ashlee’s head snapped up.
“I’ll get it, sit tight,” Jen said, noticing her friends tense demeanor. She opened the door and again, no one was there. Jen stuck her head in the hall and looked each way, still no one. She placed her hands on her hips and strode out into the hall, wanting to yell but not being able to due to the rules. She walked back into the room and closed the door, Ashlee staring at her.
“No one?”
“No, but I’m gonna watch right here,” Jen said, camping out by the eyehole. She was peering through when all of the sudden someone covered the hole with their finger. Jen ripped open the door and came face to face with a dozen yellow roses.
“What the…oh my gosh!” she squealed, leaning in and smelling her favorite kind of flowers. She peered over the flowers and they lowered, revealing a very familiar set of blue eyes twinkling at her with a smug grin plastered across his face.
“For you, good luck on finals,” he said, handing her the flowers. She took them gently and ushered him into the room, closing the door.
“How did you get in the hall like that without an escort, especially during 24-hour quiet hours?” Jen asked, looking up and down the hall once again quickly before closing the door.
“No, ‘thanks Justin, I love them, you are the best boyfriend ever’? Gee thanks girl. I drive two hours here, sneaking outta the studio so I can see you-“ Justin started, mock angry. Jen didn’t give him a chance to explain himself as she quickly leaned over and kissed him, shutting him up.
“Thanks baby. Now seriously, how?”
“Well,” he started, tossing one of Jen’s notebooks off of her chair and onto the floor so he could sit, “not many women can resist my charm…”
Jen snorted and rolled her eyes, shooting Ashlee a look. Then they both cracked up, laughing hysterically.
“OK fine. When a guy walks through a girl's dorm with a dozen roses, not many people stop to ask him about his escort...they just stare, which by the way is not something I like getting on my off days but it didn’t matter because I wanted to surprise you,” he finished, pouting on the chair. Jen’s laughing died down as she took a few steps towards him. He looked up and smiled at her while she grabbed his hands and pulled him up.
"Thank you so much, they are gorgeous. What a surprise J!” she said, hugging him tightly to her. He wrapped his arms around Jen and winked over at Ashlee, smiling smugly. She shook her head and got back to her books, sighing heavily at all that she still had to study.
“I figured I could get you outta here for a couple of hours, save you from some of this studying,” he said, pulling away from her and tucking a piece of stray hair behind her ear. She smiled up at him and nodded excitedly.
“Sounds great, I feel totally claustrophobic in here. But I gotta change, I look like crap,” she said, pulling at her USF tee shirt and wrinkled khaki shorts.
“You look fine.”
“Lemme change real quick, fix my hair at least?”
“OK, your hair, you have five minutes before we leave, either you walkin’ outta here or me carrying you out,” he finished, looking her up and down slowly.
Jen quickly pulled her hair out of her messy ponytail and brushed through it, trying to tame it a bit. She glanced at herself in the mirror, unsatisfied with how she looked. She grabbed her yellow Abercrombie and Fitch hat and slung it on her head, pulling her ponytail through and nodding to the mirror. Justin watched silently as he smiled to himself and her sporty ways.
“Let’s go,” she said, grabbing his hand and heading towards the door, “I’ll be back soon Ashlee, OK?” Ashlee waved them off as Jen dropped Justin’s hand in the hallway and they walked towards the parking lot. The phone rang as Jen was a few feet from the door.
“You wanna wait on that?” Justin asked, stopping her. Jen glanced back and shook her head.
“Nah, Ash’ll take a message if it’s for me. Besides, you are here so who else is gonna be calling me that I would turn around for?”
They got to Justin’s car and drove to the nearest ice cream shop, deciding on sharing a banana split. Jen ordered the ice cream while Justin grabbed a booth in the back so they could talk and have some peace. Jen turned around to look for him and spotted him in the way back.
“What are we doing all the way back here?” she asked, sliding into the booth across from him.
“Eating,” Justin said, digging his spoon into the ice cream and shoving it into his mouth.
“We don’t have to hide here in college town ya know,” Jen said, taking a bite of the ice cream herself.
“Whoops, I’m just used to it,” he answered with his mouth full.
“Thanks again for coming all the way out here.”
“No problem, I wanted to talk to you actually.”
Jen’s heart started beating quickly as she tried to assess what he was going to say.
Everything has been going great; this is NOT the breakup speech, is it? What the hell is he going to say? Am I being too pushy? Acting too buddy-buddy and not girlfriend enough?
“We are leaving for tour in two weeks, and we are gonna be gone for four months,” he said, reaching across the table and grabbing Jen’s hand, shaking her out of her frazzled state of mind. Jen looked up and stared at him.
“OK…” she said, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“OK…” Justin mimicked, staring at her questioningly. Jen studied him for a second, then took a deep breath.
“That’s it?”
“Yeah. What did you think…?” he asked, totally confused.
“Damnit! I am going to be home when you leave on tour?!” she announced, a little louder than she wanted to. A few people turned around to see whom she was talking to, and Justin pulled his hat further down his head and sunk into his seat a bit.
“Jeez JJ,” he whispered, glancing around quickly.
“Sorry...”
“That’s what I’m saying, we are leaving and you’ll be in Chicago,” Justin sighed, sitting back up. Jen stared out the window, thinking. She turned back around and looked at her friend who was more than a friend, and the dejected look on his face.
“It’s OK, you know what? I will fly down here the day before you leave, spend the night at your place and then see you off. Or I can even crash at your mom’s place if you guys have your thing that you do before tour, don’t think I forgot about that,” she reasoned, trying to get Justin to smile.
“I’ll pay for your ticket, then. Is your mom gonna be OK with it?”
“Ha, she’ll have to be. No, she will, she knows what’s going on.”
“Oh yeah? How much does she know?” Justin asked, winking at Jen. She ignored his comment and continued on with her thoughts.
“I’ll call her and let her know what the plan is so we can get a ticket-“
“No I’ll take care of it, don’t worry about it. I’ll get it for you so you can study your brains out for finals,” he interrupted, tapping her nose.
“I should get back to that…” she sighed, taking one last bite of the ice cream.
“Jen?”
“Uh huh Stin?”
“What were you so nervous about before?”
Jen looked up at him and averted her eyes.
He knows me waaaay too well.
“Nevermind Justin, we should really get back eh? I bet Johnny is looking for your sorry white butt. Wait a minute, how did you get out here without Mike?”
Justin reached over the table and took both of her hands in his. He slid her out of the booth and pulled her next to him.
“Hahaha, Mike thinks I'm still at the studio, but never mind that. We are so good Jen. So good. I am the happiest I have been in a long time, and nothing, I mean NOTHING is going to change that, OK?” he said, rubbing her shoulders gently while staring into her eyes. “No tour, no winter break, nothing. I’m not letting you go.”
Jen smiled up at him and leaned in close, resting her head on his shoulder. He hugged her tight and pulled her back slightly and leaned in and kissed her lovingly, pouring his heart into the kiss. She sighed and reveled in the feel of his lips, realizing all too soon he will be thousands of miles away from her and these little kisses will be the ones she missed the most.
