Jen was up and going early in the morning, half eager for classes to start, and half-disappointed summer was officially over. She managed to find her classes all right, even though she stumbled into one a few minutes late. It was pretty much the same thing in each class; hand out the class expectations, hand out a syllabus, and give the assignment due for the next class. Nothing too dramatic and stressful, but she knew that all of it would be upon her soon enough.
On the bright side of things, Kyle was in her English class, and she sat with him and they talked the whole time. She was really beginning to like Kyle, the way he talked with his hands, the way his eyes locked onto hers like she was the only person in the room, and of course, the way his lips moved. She was intrigued with him; and it seemed as if he was entranced with her. So, when Kyle asked Jen out on Saturday, she accepted eagerly.
"So Jen, maybe you want to get together Saturday?" Kyle asked as they were walking out of English. Jen looked at him and smiled, secretly cheering in her head.
"Sure, that sounds like fun," she replied calmly. They walked back to their dorm, keeping the conversation light and casual. They mostly talked about classes and what they were expecting to get out of this semester. Kyle walked Jen to her room, and she invited him in to hang out because she was done with classes for the day. He still had another one, but he stopped in for a few minutes anyway. Jen noticed the door was locked, which meant Ashlee was gone. There was a note on the dry erase board on the front of the door that read:
"Hey Jen! I'll be back around 4:00, wait for me for dinner and stuff! Message on the machine from JT! Seeya! Love, Ash." Jen smiled at her roommates scribbling and walked into the room, dropping her bag onto her desk chair. She glanced at the flashing light on the machine, eager to listen. She fought the temptation and turned towards Kyle, motioning for him to sit on the futon. He obliged and she brought him a Pepsi from the fridge and sat down next to him.
"So, who is JT?" he asked initiating the conversation, and then took a long gulp of his pop. Jen looked at him and smiled.
"That's Justin, remember from yesterday? Blonde curly hair?" she said, drawing up her own mental picture. Then she pointed towards the ceiling and said, "the goofball with the red jacket on, now do you remember?"
Kyle's eyes clouded over as he watched Jen smile at the poster of her friend. He then shook his thoughts and looked over at her and nodded, with a fake smile plastered on his tanned face.
"Yeah, I remember him. So you gonna listen to the message?" he asked, wanting to know what was going on. Jen looked at him funny, but then shrugged off her feeling of uneasiness.
"Later. Hey, don't you have class?" she questioned, glancing at her clock.
"Shit yeah," Kyle began. He finished his Pepsi and grabbed his bag, standing up. Jen got up with him and walked over to the door. He walked up to Jen and brushed his lips against her cheek, extremely close to her mouth.
"Bye chica. I'll call you tomorrow or stop by, and we can plan for Saturday ok?" he asked, remaining extremely close to her. She shivered and was in a daze; her thoughts mixed up due to his closeness.
"Ok," she managed to get out. Kyle smiled at her, and then to himself as he walked out of her room, knowing he was reeling her in and had her. She closed the door behind him and let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding. She stood there, with her hand against the door for a good five minutes, totally dazed and light headed.
What is this feeling? Am I falling for Kyle? He is so sweet and nice and amazingly GORGEOUS…why not go for him? He seems attracted to me…I sure as hell am attracted to him…I am gonna go for it!
She snapped out of her reverie and bounded over to the answering machine, happy about the situation with Kyle, and excited to hear the message from Justin. She pressed "play" and waited eagerly for the familiar voice to fill the room.
"Hey Jen! How are ya sweet…it's your boy Justin coming at'cha straight from O-town!! I miss ya already! So, how are classes going? Any of your friends in them? I hope everything is cool!"
Then she heard the phone shuffling, and Justin yelled out, "Hang ON, I am talkin' here JC!"
"Hey girl, wassup? Just wanted to say hi now, because God KNOWS we wont be able to pry the phone from Justin's ear. Me, Chris, Joey and Lance are kinda tag-teaming him now…you should see his face, its priceless! He is so mad, there is like, steam comin' outta his ears! Hode up, I'm handin' the phone over to Joey. I miss ya kiddo!" JC said, and then blew a kiss into the phone. Jen laughed as she heard the phone being passed around again, while Justin's whining continued in the background.
"Jen baby, how the hell are ya? Just saw ya yesterday, but you know us, we gotta talk to our favorite girl! How is Ashlee anyway? Ha ha! Just kiddin' sweetie! Come over, we have a pasta date!" Joey yelled the last part into the phone.
"You better be in class Jenko! Miss ya much!" Chris said as he passed the phone on to the next.
"Good luck with classes, Jen. I hope you are out to visit us soon, or we might have to come back there. OK, I'm giving the phone back to Justin before someone gets shot," Lance said. Jen was cracking up; this was one of the funniest messages she had ever had.
Then she heard Justin AGAIN in the background, getting on the phone.
"GET OUT! Move it you guys!! Hi JJ, I am back, FINALLY! Sorry about this craziness. OK JC, I WILL! Ugh, whatever. So anyway, we are having this barbecue for y'all on Saturday…it'll be like lunch and dinner. You are supposed to bring your lovely self and your roommate to our place aiight? We are in and out of the studio all week so call me on my cell if you need anything; you know the drill. I gotta go…I'll talk to ya real soon Jenzie, call me when you get this. Love ya! PEACE!" and the message ended. By this time, Jen was on the futon, rolling around laughing. She shook her head back and forth, trying to calm down.
"Those psycho's," she laughed as she turned on the radio and started on her assignments, thinking about the guys. It totally slipped her mind that she had a date with Kyle the same day as the barbecue.
Meanwhile, the guys were in the studio rehearsing for their winter tour. They were working on their dancing, and their choreographer was not impressed.
"Justin! Come on, you know the moves, do it right or we will be here all night!" he yelled out, fed up. The rest of the guys rolled their eyes and groaned, staring at their bandmate. Justin was distracted, they all could tell. He kept glancing at his cell phone, which rested on top of his bag across the room.
I wonder if she is out with Kyle? Is he there right now? God no, don't wanna think like that. What if something happened to her? Why hasn't she called me back? Is she in class? I don't even know her schedule…I better get that. The guys are gonna kill me if I don't do this right. I know these dances forwards and backwards…why am I so out of it?
He shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts. The guys were still staring at him, and he glared at them in return.
"What?" he asked with his hands on his hips, annoyed. They all looked away, secretly glancing at each other. JC turned his gaze towards the phone; he looked like he was willing it to do something.
"Damnit Jen, call him so we can get outta here," he mumbled, and Chris and Lance heard him. They softly chuckled and nodded slightly. The choreographer counted off and they began dancing again, hoping Justin would get it right this time.
The dorm room door flew open and in walked Ashlee, smiling. Jen looked up from her books, which were scattered all over the floor, and smiled back.
"Hey! How was your day?" she asked, standing up.
"It was class, whaddya expect? There were some hotties in psych though…wow!" she replied, her eyes wide. Jen laughed and closed her books and picked them up. Ashlee glanced over to the answering machine and raised her eyebrows.
"Did you listen to the message from the guys?" she asked. Jen turned around and started laughing.
"Oh yes…what dorks! They are so weird at times I swear…SHIT! I was supposed to call Justin back! What time is it?" She asked, throwing her books onto her desk and looking around frantically.
"Its 4:30 Jen. What time did they call again?" Ashlee questioned, watching Jen go crazy.
"Umm, uh, like 2:00! He is gonna KILL me! Where is the phone yo?" Jen was searching through the futon, picking up the cushions with worry lines evident on her face. Ashlee reached over and picked the phone up off the charger and handed it to her. Jen looked up and relaxed her features, then punched in Justin's cell number faster than Ashlee had ever seen anyone dial.
"C'mon J, pick it up," Jen muttered as the phone rang.
"Jen?!" a hurried voice asked from the other line.
"Justin! Hey! Sorry I didn't call sooner, it totally slipped my mind and I got into my homework…" she trailed off, climbing up into her bed.
"Oh, its ok, I was just wondering where you were," Justin played it off. He was just happy to hear her voice.
The guys were hoping it was her; Justin had been answering his phone for the past two hours the exact same way, and when Lou called his cell, he wasn't happy to be addressed as "Jen". They saw Justin visibly relax, and they knew all was well.
Jen relaxed into her pillows and smiled. "So, I got that crazy message, the best one yet I think," she laughed, stretching out.
"Yeah, the guys were goin' insane and stuff. So how was the first day?"
"It was pretty boring. But hey! Kyle is in my English class, so that works out really well. We can study for exams and do our homework together and stuff." Justin groaned inwardly at the mention of Kyle. He then got a sinking feeling in his stomach, hoping that the study sessions would consist of just studying, nothing else. He decided to change the subject when the mental images became vivid, and before he said something he would regret.
"So you ARE coming right? On Saturday?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder at the guys. They busied themselves to make it appear that they weren't eavesdropping. He rolled his eyes and turned his back to them.
"Of course! I can't wait to see ya again; I like being this close to ya. We'll prolly leave around 10, get there at noon. How does that sound?" she asked as she traced the outline of his autographed picture in the frame above her bed. Her fingers ran over his face, tracing his eyes, nose, and lips.
"We'll be here. Hey babe, I gotta go, we have to finish rehearsal," he said looking at the guys once again, who were now pestering him to get off the phone.
"You are STILL at rehearsal? You have been there forever, you are usually done quick!" she replied, astonished. Justin blushed, thankful that she couldn't see him.
"Well, Lance was havin' a bad dancing day, wait a minute, that's everyday…but anyway, that's why we are still here," Justin said quickly. Lance shouted in the background, but Jen couldn't hear. She laughed and rolled onto her back, imagining Lance and the guys ripping on him.
"All right, I'll let you go. I'll call you later on this week probably, just to chat. If not, we'll be there on Saturday at noon! Seeya Stin," she whispered the last bit and closed her eyes, resting back onto the pillow. Justin smiled and closed his eyes also.
"Seeya JJ," he said and he hung up the phone. He turned around to the guys and saw them smirking at him.
"What?" he asked again, glaring.
They all backed off and JC looked directly at Justin and said smiling widely, "Let's finish this rehearsal up LANCE."
