The Lake House [ Justin Bieber ]

seven.

Ana

I flipped past the final page in the last book Justin had given me, throwing it to the side along with the rest of them. It surprised me that he had randomly lent them to me. Lisa thought he'd done it as an excuse to talk to me and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

I stared at the books lying on my bed for fifteen minutes. I was home alone for the night, had nothing better to do and the books had to be returned sometime right? I would just pop in, give the books back and leave. I wouldn't seem desperate. Not anymore.

Throwing a pair of shoes onto my feet, I scooped up the pile and basically threw myself down the stairs. I crossed over to Justin's lawn, pausing to take a breath, and rang the doorbell.

I heard footsteps stomp around behind the door. The curtains ruffled in the window and the door opened. Justin stood, face torn between wide-eyed and a glare. Suddenly coming here didn't feel like such a good idea.

"Hi." I said, sheepishly.

"What are you doing here?"

"Um," I shifted the weight in my arms. "I-I finished the books so I wanted to return them."

"You shouldn't-" Justin sighed. "You could have just given them to me whenever you saw me outside." He took the books from me. "You have to-"

"Justin?" An older man stepped behind Justin. "What are you doing?" I had never seen his uncle before and by the way Justin stiffened, I got the idea that he was afraid of him.

"Noth-"

"Who's this?" We made eye contact and I didn't know if I should look away or hold the gaze. I settled on shifting my glance over to Justin.

"Richard, this is our neighbor, Ana. She was just returning some books I lent her." Justin sighed, looking down at the ground. "Ana, this is my Uncle Richard."

"Nice to meet you." I smiled.

He nodded. "Well, Justin, aren't you going to invite our guest to stay for dinner?" A hand was placed on Justin's shoulder and I didn't miss the slight change in his stance, the way he flinched, though it was barely noticeable.

"Would you..." Justin's eyes slowly moved up to mine. "Would you like to stay?" He grinded out like it was the hardest thing he'd ever had to say.

I held his gaze steadily. "I'd love to." A shit-eating grin grew on my face. He disliked me for whatever reason but now he was forced to hang out.

I followed them inside the house. Richard turned back to Justin. "Why don't you take her into the living room while I finish up dinner?"

Justin raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

His uncle's eyebrows rose but in a more intimidating way. "Because I said so." He said quietly.

Justin's shoulders slumped but he nodded. He turned to me, gesturing for me to follow him into the living room.

Pictures of a much younger Justin lined the walls, a much different Justin than I'd ever witnessed. He didn't have those cold, dead eyes. He didn't look angry or sad or lonely.

"You played soccer?" I smiled.

"Yeah, for a while actually." He nodded. "I used to play a lot of sports. I was on a basketball team in elementary school."

"Were you any good?"

"Yeah, pretty good." Justin smirked.

"I bet I could take you." I said jokingly, shoving past him.