White is for Virgins

Chapter 37

I shoved him. "Same old Justin."

"Some things you can't change," he shrugged, shaking his black hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah, evidently." I gave him a smile, returning the one he'd been offering me from the start. It was only fair.

"Hey!" Lily yelled, biting into her sugary treat and motioning for us to join the rest of the gang. Justin went over to Nick, and I found my place next to Lily as we all stood together and made plans for which rides to go on first.

"What's that about?" she asked, eyeing Justin.

"I honestly don't know. He bought me my tickets 'cause I was short ten bucks, and then he started joking around and stuff. No overly nasty jokes, no asshole-ness, no evil look in his eye."

She shrugged. "I think it's 'cause of what happened like right after graduation." I nodded for her to tell me more.

"I heard he came home one night completely trashed, like, drunk, high, obnoxious, all that. His mom had to help him over to the shower and spray cold water on him all the while he was yelling and swearing at her and basically making her feel like shit, right? Get this, though. His little, like, eight-year-old brother was playing with his new camcorder and he caught the entire thing on camera. Watching that video and seeing how disgusting he was, I think it gave him a real good smack in the face."

"Just the one he needed," I mused. "Oh my God, that's crazy."

"Yeah," Lily agreed. "Go have fun with him," she encouraged, playfully nudging me with her elbow. Justin was in fact calling me over. "What'll it hurt, right?" I got up and walked over to him with a hopeful attitude. He'd bought me my tickets – I needed to use them.

"So are you only into Ferris wheels?" he asked as we started walking together. The group had kind of split up.

"You think I'm a softy?"

He smiled knowingly. "I think you're a softy."

"You think I can't handle some of these rides?"

"Some?" he smirked.

"We're using up every ticket, then," I said, rising to the challenge. I grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the 'Spooky Maze' that was set up. He ended up getting us more tickets as we proceeded to go on every possible ride. The night ended with the entire crew reuniting on the Ferris wheel. It had gotten kind of chilly, so Justin and I sat close in the cart. It stopped at the very top, rocking back and forth almost unpleasantly as more people got on. I didn't mind the screeching or the rocking, though.

"Justin?" I asked, leaving the view of the night sky to look at the boy next to me.

"Hmm?" he asked, seemingly surprised. We both noticed just how close we were; how close we'd been the entire day.

"Not to sound forward or anything," I sighed, "but why haven't you tried to kiss me?" We stared into each other's eyes for a moment, hanging thirty feet from the ground in a rocking, rusty yellow cart. He chuckled, breaking the spell. "I'm serious," I said, trying to deny the smile that was forming on my lips.

"Em, trust me, I would've done it a long time ago if Fox wasn't my friend," he admitted, scratching the back of his head. It always comes back to him.

"What does he have to do with anything?" I asked, staring forward at the lake in the distance. The moon's reflection danced across the water. "He's on a different continent right now." I can't even say his name.

"That doesn't change that you're his girl," Justin reasoned softly.

That got me a little defensive. "I was never his anything."