The Girl Next Door > jariana (COMPLETED)

five

Ariana

I glanced at the clock as I walked out of Nicole's house. Not very much time had gone by. I wondered if Justin was home and if he was still rehearsing. As I got closer to my house, I could hear the band playing. I arrived and stood in front of his house. I could hear his voice singing out, and it made me melt. He sounded older when he sang. I leaned against his truck. They played through two songs while I stood there in my dream state.

All of a sudden, the garage started to open, and I darted as quickly as I could toward my house.

"Hey, back already?" Justin called out and my knees buckled, making me stop. He opened the door to his truck, taking out a duffle bag and what appeared to be a camera tripod.

"Ha, yeah, I kind of got in an argument with one of the guys." I informed, throwing out my hands.

"Bummer," he said. He spoke again with his head down, muttering something as he struggled with the bag and the tripod. I couldn't hear his words clearly, as he gestured and smiled at me. He was too cute, and I couldn't stand it. Then he said, "Come by later if you wanna talk about it. The guys should be leaving in an hour or so."

My stomach fluttered as the butterflies slammed into each other. I looked past Justin and noticed Mike was staring at me smugly.

I slowly walked back to my house in a daze, thinking it would be cool if Nadine liked Mike instead. I wished so hard that it would happen. I had a lump in my throat the size of a grapefruit, and my mouth was super dry. Gross, I thought. I went straight to the kitchen and gulped down a glass of water, wondering if anyone else was home.

I shouted out, "Is anyone home?"

There was no response.

The only sound was the whirl of a fan someone forgot to turn off. I was a nervous wreck. I screamed out loud, throwing myself down onto the sofa. I was totally in la-la land. Thank God it was summer time and school wouldn't interfere with whatever was happening. My bag dropped to the floor and I leaned over, taking out Justin's shirt and draped it over my face.

I lay on the sofa like that for an hour; peeking out every so often to see how many minutes had ticked by. Finally it was time to check if Justin's band mates were gone. I sprinted up the stairs to my room and stared at myself in the mirror as if my reflection would tell me what to do. I was a mess. Justin was more than "just Justin" now.

I ran to my parent's room, the only room in the house that had a view of Justin's backyard and of his bedroom window. When his window blinds were open, there was a clear view into his room, but I didn't see anyone.

I bound down the stairs and slowly opened the front door. I was happy we had a courtyard. No one could see me unless they were standing right in front of the gate. I crept over to the fence nearest Justin's house to see if I could hear anything. There was no longer any muffled music or voices. I pulled over a nearby chair and peeked over the fence to see if see if any of the guy's cars were still parked in front. They were gone.

I walked back into the house with my stomach in knots. I felt silly all of a sudden. Would he think I was a cling-on, a groupie, or whatever they called those fan girls? Finally, after talking to myself forever I made my way to his house.

"Hey," I said softly, approaching his garage.

"Hey, I was just wondering if you were gonna come back over. I was gonna wait a little bit longer and then head over to Dump's house." He flashed his thousand-watt smile at me. My hands began to sweat as my blood rushed to my head. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't know. You look flushed." He looked concerned.

Oh my God! I was totally blushing! What a fucking freak. I had to get a grip! My thoughts smacked against each other as they ran around my brain.