Waiting on Justin

Chapter 10

The next morning, Justin called in to work and told Coffee that we and Clayton got into a fight and we had to move right away. Coffee, like always, appreciated Justin's honesty and told him about some cheap apartments up the street from Treadmore's. Justin got a hold of the landlord and rented a small (and when I say small, I mean small) studio apartment about five miles from the tire store on his good word and Coffee's reference. Actually, what happened was Coffee promised the landlord, Adriana Cookson, he would take the rent out of Justin's paycheck if he didn't come through.

Justin didn't tell her about me when he signed the contract. There wasn't much to move, and we weren't going to make Clayton mad by taking anything that wasn't ours. Coffee let Justin use one of the store's trucks, and we packed up our beds, dressers, and the TV Justin had in his room. We did take two plates, two sets of silverware, two cups, and two coffee mugs and hoped he wouldn't even notice those. Oh, and a steak knife—we had so many we were sure he wouldn't notice if it was gone.

It was a good thing we didn't have more to move in because it wouldn't have fit. As it was, we pushed our beds together in one corner farthest from the kitchenette area and put the TV on Justin's dresser across the room. There was about two feet from the foot of our beds to the dresser on the other wall. We used my dresser, which was longer and lower, as our catch-all.

The first thing we noticed after sitting down on the beds was darkness. There was only one overhead light above the entryway and a light in the shower-only bathroom. The kitchen had a mini-stove with a lighted hood, but it was no brighter than a nightlight. We went to Target and bought a particle board nightstand, a floor lamp, a table lamp for the nightstand, and a hamper—because I always wanted one, and I needed something to haul our laundry to the common wash area in. They had bar stools too, and Justin thought it would be a good idea to get them so we had somewhere else to sit besides our beds.

We didn't have money for anything else but food. Justin was used to paying three hundred dollars a month for rent and was shocked to find out we would only have to pay two hundred-fifty dollars for the apartment, including water and garbage. All we had to spring for was TV and power, which would probably balance out to the same amount, but we had to be careful. He was hopeful we would still have money left over every month so he could keep saving; he liked to save. I felt like we had made the great escape.

We were free.

We lay side-by-side on his bed, exposed and unafraid, for the first time ever, of getting caught. We talked deep into the night about what life would be like, and we kissed freely, deeply, passionately between the lulls in the conversation. My shirt and bra came off but he still refused to cross the line. I straddled him and moved my hips until he groaned I hoped this time, for the first time, he would ignore it, so I kept going—but no. He lifted me up and off of him, stretched his arms up to the wall, and took in air. Then he sat up on one arm and looked down at me, playing with my breasts and dipped his head to kiss them quickly. I sucked in a breath as he raised himself back up and smiled and looked me over, his desire as obvious as my own. His hand trailed down my navel and up again, tracing the contours of my curves.

"Someday," he promised.

"Someday can be today," I offered.

"Nope, not yet."

"Always not yet!"

"Not always; our day will come. Just wait."

"That's all I do, Justin."

"Just a little longer."

"You suck!"

"I know, and you like it." He straddled me that time, grabbing my hands in his, pushing them up over our heads so that our bare chests touched. And we kissed until the groan escaped again. Then he pulled away for good and winked.