Morganville (Justin Bieber)

Chapter 6

I put the controller on the couch cushions, and watched him play for a while. "Justin?" I finally asked.

"Hang on- damn that was close. What?" He asked not looking away from the screen.

"How did you get on Monica's-"

"Shit list?" he supplied, and drilled a few dozen bullets into a lunging zombie in a prom dress. "You don't have to do much; just not crawl on your belly every time she walks in a room" which I noticed wasn't exactly an answer. "What did you do?" He asked me.

"I uh..I made her look stupid?" I questioned myself.

He hit some control and froze the game in mid-scream, and turned to look at me. "You what?" He asked shocked.

"Well she said this thing about World War II being about the Chinese, and-"

Justin laughed. He had a good laugh, loud and full of raw energy, and I smiled nervously in return. "You're feistier thank you look, A. Good one" he held up a hand, I awkwardly smacked it. "Oh man, that's sadder than the video game thing. Again"

Five hand snacks later, I had mastered the high five to his satisfaction, and he unfroze the video game.

"Justin?" I asked.

This time, he sighed. "Yeah?"

"Sorry, but - about your sister-"

Silence. He didn't look at me, didn't give any indication he had heard a word. He just kept on killing things. He was good at it.

My nerves failed me. I went back to my textbook. It didn't seem quite as exciting, somehow. After half an hour, I bagged it, stood, stretched and asked, "When does Micheal wake up?"

"When he wants to" Justin shrugged. "Why?" He made a face and narrowly avoicee getting his arm clawed off on screen.

"I-I figured I might go back to the dorm and my things" I yawned.

He hit a button, and the screen paused in mid-shot again. "What?" He gave me his full attention, which made my heart stutter, then pound harder. Guys like Justin did not give mousy little book worms like me their full attention. Not like that.

"My stuff. From my dorm room" I finally spoke.

"Yeah, that's what I thought you said. Did you miss the part where the cops are looking for you?" He said.

"Well if I check in" I said reasonably. "I won't be missing anymore. I can say I slept over somewhere. They'll stop looking for me"

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard" Justin shook his head.

"No. It isn't. If they think I'm back in the dorm, they'll leave me to Monica, right? It could be a few days before she figures out I'm not coming back. She could forget about me by then!" I try to convince him.

"Anastasia-" he frowned for a second or two, then shook his head. "No way are you going over there by yourself"

"But- they don't know where I am. If you come, they'll know" I say to him.

"And if you don't come back from the dorm, I'm the one who has to explain to Micheal how I let you got off by yourself and get killed like a dumbass. First rule of horror movies, A. Never split up." He said. I slightly felt my heart warm at my new nickname.

"I can't hide here! I have classes!" I shout exasperated.

"Drop em" Justin says so casually.

"No way!" The whole thought horrified me. Nearly as much as failing them.