woman like me - j.f✔️

XIX

After spending the rest of their day together, Justin did the gentlemanly act of walking Love home. He really cared for her, and after this afternoon and realising how much he'd unknowingly helped him, he had a new perspective of her. She was so much more polite, respectful and compassionate than she gave herself credit for. Sometimes the helpers need to be helped.

They took the long way home, passing through a field and admiring the different trees and their heights and abnormalities. It said a lot about the type of person she was, she took her time to admire things and say what she liked about them.

"You know," she mentioned, looking up at the moon that was beginning to appear. "I used to think that the trees touched the stars, and I was so eager to climb all the way to the top. But I would get so scared that my dad would have to come and rescue me." Justin giggled, but not too obnoxiously to ruin her sweet moment.

"Seems like you." He added. They'd left the field and were back onto the concrete, the ground feeling different on their feet. And once they had gotten to her house, he watched her walk up to the porch. He didn't want to leave until she was safely inside her house, and her mom had answered the door.

"Hey, Love. Is this your friend?" She asked, referencing to the tall, grinning boy on the sidewalk before her gate. Love nodded and smiled back at him, seeing him wave awkwardly. "Would you like to stay for dinner?" She asked. That was her mom. Inviting them for dinner before even getting to know their name.

Justin nodded, blessing her mom in his head as she'd saved him from another microwave meal. Usually he would cook an easy dinner, like pasta. But he'd reached the end of his groceries and needed to go to the store. But he pushed that to tomorrow's to-do list.

"Mom, this is Justin. Justin, this is my mom." Love explained as they entered the living room. They sat on the couch, whilst her mom had passed them and returned to the kitchen. Their open floor made it easier to talk to each other, and Justin sat silently as Love spoke to her mom.

"Hey, Justin. So I hear you're new to town, how are you finding it?" She asked, looking over to them both with a spatula in her hand. Love took the opportunity to head upstairs and throw on some more comfortable clothing. Which was just exchanging her jeans for leggings.

"Yeah, much better than the last town I lived in." He replied. She frowned, turning her head back to him.

"What town was that?" She asked.

"Evergreen." Her facial expressions changed from confused to a look of understanding. She nodded her head slowly and quickly stirred the ingredients in the pan in front of her.

"That I can agree with," she mumbled. "My sister used to live there, she moved after everything that happened with her daughter." Justin nodded, not really paying attention. Usually he wasn't this nervous meeting parents, especially his friends parents. But there was this unexplainable sweat and quickly paced heart.

Love had returned, just as her mom was placing the dishes onto the table. They sat beside each other, Margot appearing and sitting opposite Love like she usually does. "Who's this?" She asked, Love being rather embarrassed at her sister's abruptness. But nine year olds had no filter.

"Mar," Love warned. "Be nice. This is Justin, my friend." Margot waved with a big grin on her face, Justin returning the gesture. And they all spoke like the usually would, but with Justin involved. This was the best dinner he'd had since he left Clay's home. After months of being alone and eating dinner in bed, this was nice.

After dinner, Love brought Justin to her room with the excuse of discussing homework. She promised to keep the door open, and sat on her bed. Justin admired the neatness of her room. She had a showroom, everything was minimal yet homely. Like a normal, teenage bedroom except it looked like nobody had lived in it.

"You never told me about your long story, when the team was asking about your family." Justin pointed out. When the team 'brought him up to speed', all they mentioned was a guy named Kenny. And that was it. Maybe him and Love were close? "Well, I have time now."

Love sighed deeply, knowing there was no way out of this one. "I had a brother. Kenny, who was in the grade above us." She started. Well, that answered his question. Kenny was her older brother. He didn't want to press any more, as he didn't want her to cry. But she continued anyway. "He had every boy's dream life. He was captain of the football team, he was sweet, charming, had all the girls over him. But he wasn't a total asshole to everyone."

Justin didn't say anything, he just listened as she spoke. She leant against her pillows as she began to deepen the story. "His grades were great, he was on route to high places. But uneasy is the head that wears the crown. He was suffering a battle that he kept solely to himself. He never reached out to anyone, not even me, and we were extremely close. And midway through his junior year, my sophomore year, he killed himself. It was a massive shock to us all, and it tore me apart."

Holy shit. Justin wasn't expecting that at all, but he could relate on a personal level. He knew someone who killed themselves, but they weren't as close as brother and sister, more of a past fling.

"That's why it's so hard to give up on Rowan. She helped me through that. But our relationship went downhill the more shit that happened to me." She stated. "After Kenny's death, more horrible things started to happen and I lost the wheel on every relationship I had."

What did she mean? Justin sat in confusion, but fell silent due to her horrible experience of high school. He wanted to know more but didn't want to pressure her.