It took me forever to find out where Justin was. First I looked at Lukes, possibly he had stopped for something to eat, then the Bookstore, where he works, after that I looked around aimlessly in the town square, before I asked Miss Patty.
It finally took me to Josh's house when his mom told me that they were most likely at the school's football field.
Like duh, why didn't I think of that. Most likely because I was still questioning my sanity after what happened with Tristan and I.
Anyway, that is where I am. I walked through the girls locker room so I would head straight to the field instead of the bleachers.
There they were, Katie, Belle, Josh, Darren and Justin. Katie and Belle were sitting on the bench's off to the side, while the boys just tossed the football back and forth.
The season was still going, but the Coach's wife had a baby so they only have practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays.
I walked up to Katie and Belle first, hoping that they would be easier to talk to. I don't even know if I should tell them what happened or if I should just keep it a secret.
"Hey." I greeted with a smile pressed on my face. "Oh my god. Hey! I didn't think you'd be back this early." Katie said as she got up to give me a hug.
"Yeah, I didn't feel like staying." I told them. "It's good to see you. I feel like it's been forever." Belle mentioned.
"I know. I'm sorry, but I am all caught up now, so I should have more time on my hands." I stated.
"Hey you." Justin chimed as he hugged me from behind and placed a kiss on my cheek. "Hey." I smiled back at him as I hugged his arms. Josh and Darren had done about the same with their girlfriends.
"Hey, Eva." Josh and Darren both greeted. "Hey. So any plans or just hanging out?" I asked. "Well, we didn't know what time you'd be back so we just decided to hang out." Darren answered for me. "Yeah, didn't you have that bake sale thingy." Josh pointed out.
Dang him for a good memory
"Yeah, but I just wanted to come home. Plus mom and Rory can handle it." I dismissed the fact that I wanted to get away from a certain someone. "That's nice of them." Justin noted. "Yeah it was." I agreed.
Wanting to change the subject, I wiggled out of Justin's grasp and grabbed the football. "Girls against boys?" I challenged tossing the ball from hand to hand.
Everyone cheered in agreement. Justin came up behind me, grabbed my hips and whispered, "You're going down."
"You wanna bet?" I questioned, turning around in his grasp. "Bet what?" He inquired.
"If you win, we'll do whatever you want for a day," I started as I slowly moved my arms up his chest around his neck. "And if I win, we do whatever I want for a day." I ended, biting my lower lip and looking him up and down.
He visibly swallowed, "Yeah. Okay." He answered. I smirked and let up to press a kiss to his lips, before I grabbed his hand and tugged him to the middle of the field with the others.
~~~
The game was currently tied, 14 to 14. We agreed that who ever got the next touchdown wins and the ball was ours.
Katie and Belle were on either side of me with Darren and Josh guarding them. We made the rule of no rushing the quarterback so Justin was in the middle of the field ready to get whoever got the ball.
I held the ball out in front of me as I yelled, "Down, set, HUT!" Then brought it back to me, ready to throw.
The girls took off running, it was really funny. We didn't know too many plays, so after a while we just said, 'Get open.' So they were running every which was trying to give me a target to pass to.
I was looking at Katie, trying to see if she was open and Justin must have mistaken it for I was going to throw to her because he immediately started to run over that direction.
Poor guy should not be a safety.
I looked over to Belle who had a chance if I threw a couple yards ahead of her.
So I did and it wasn't a complete spiral, but it still was pretty and accurate, that's all that really mattered.
The ball slid right into Belle's hands and she caught it and started running to the end zone. Thank goodness for her being in track as she was able to start sprinting and got away from Darren.
She ran right into the end zone and made a touchdown.
"WE WIN!" She yelled as she slammed the football to the ground like they all do when they get a touchdown. Katie and I had already started running over to her and once we got there we all cheered.
The guys on the other hand were on the floor, pretending to cry and hitting the floor or standing there out of breath.
We laughed at them as we started to walk back to where they were. "In your face!" Katie exclaimed once we reached them.
Justin just shook his head, a smile on his face as I walked over to him. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders standing on my tip-toes, "I guess you have to do whatever I want for a day." I smiled.
"I guess I do, don't I." He mumbled as he wrapped his arms around my waist.
I pressed my lips against his and he kissed back immediately. I was starting to feel less guilty about the almost kiss with Tristan because it almost happened. It didn't actually happen and I was really happy with this guy right in front of me.
"Alright, alright. Break it up." Josh called as he stood holding Katie by the waist. Justin and I both smiled before we pulled away. I stood back down on my feet and rested my head against his chest.
"Eva!" Rory called from the side of the field as she ran over to us. The poor thing didn't run all that well. "Eva. You have come." Rory said out of breath once she reached us.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Come on." She said as she grabbed me by the hand and pulled me to the exit.
"Bye!" I called out to the group who were left on the field wondering what just happened.
"Bye!" They yelled back.
~~~
Rory and I went and picked up mom from Lukes as well. She didn't say much except that it had something to do with Cinnamon. Once we got back to the house we walked over to Babette's and Morey's place.
Mom opened the door, "Babette? Honey?" She said as she walked in. Rory and I followed suit to see them gathered in the living room.
Babette was standing while Morey was sat on the couch. There was a girl there who was dealing with Cinnamon's body, which was covered by a white sheet.
"Oh, Lorelai, come in, come in." Babette said, but not in her normal, loud and enthusiastic tone, yet in a sad and mournful way.
"She's gone." She told mom as mom put a hand on Babette's shoulder. Rory and I walked over and sat next to Morey in an attempt to comfort him.
"Cinnamon's gone." Babette repeated. "I'm so sorry." Mom comforted.
"Is there anything we can do for you Morey?" I asked him as I put my hand on his shoulder. "This is life Eva," he stopped to take a breath, "It breaks your heart."
"She looked like she was sleepin'. I thought she was asleep, so I nudged her, and she didn't wake. I gave her a push, and she rolled off the couch, and since I'd just waxed the floors, she went shootin' across the room. And when she knocked over the lamp, and still didn't move, I knew it was over." Babette told us all the story, using hand gestures to make it more real, "Oh god, my baby."
"Tell me it wasn't the--" Morey started to speak, but got choked up. "Oh Morey, don't do this to yourself. He thinks it was the clams." Babette explained.
"She saw me eating them and she gave me that, 'Hey, what's up' look and-" He started, but the Vet cut him off.
"It wasn't the clams." She told him, "Morey, in human years, this cat was 260 years old." "That's a good long life." Mom noted.
"Listen, let me take her to the van and then I'll get out of your way." She tried.
"Oh, no. Stay. All of you, please stay." Babette practically begged. "Cinnamon would want you here."
"We'll stay as long as you want." Rory decided. "I'll never eat clams again." Morey spoke. "Me, either." I promised giving him a smile.
And we stayed, talked to Babette and Morey. They told us stories of Cinnamon and as weird as some of them might be, they were all really sweet stories.
We also helped plan Cinnamon's wake and invited everyone over. We made sure that we had food and drinks all covered as well as everyone Babette and Morey knew, which was basically everyone, would be here.
People started to show up not much later with flowers and gifts for Babette and Morey. It was a little strange that everyone would drop everything that they were doing for a cat, but that proved how much we care for each other and how much Babette and Morey loved this cat.
Katie and Belle were able to come early, the guys would come a little later if they could. We were walking around a bit, there was a lot of people crammed into this small house.
"They said they rolled her body into a lamp?" Katie stated, but it was a question. I just shook my head yes.
"Did you laugh?" Belle asked. This time I shook my head no. "Did you want to?" Belle inquired.
I shook my head yes, "But it's sad." I finally spoke.
"Yeah, it's sad." Katie agreed as we passed Miss Patty who went straight to Babette.
We watched Sookie and Luke follow my mom inside, but they both tried to get through the door at the same time, which then they got stuck. We all giggled at that before Sookie raced inside before Luke.
"Dig in!" Luke yelled and people started to rush over for some food.
"Hungry?" I asked.
"Yeah." They replied and we joined the group of people waiting to get food.
~~~
The night continued and some people left and others joined, including Justin, Josh and Darren. We had found a spot for all of us to sit at. Katie, Josh and Belle were all sat on a couch while Darren was on a stool to the side and Justin was in a chair with me on his lap.
"So how's football going?" I asked no one inparticular.
"Good actually. We've only lost two games." Darren answered.
"Yeah, you should come to one." Katie offered.
"I would love to, I'm just going to have to make time." I replied.
"C'mon blow off school for one day. What happened to the Eva who used to skip first period." Belle teased.
"Alright, one day." I agreed and they cheered before picking up another topic.
"Hey, if you can't come that's okay." Justin whispered to me. I turned a little to face him.
"It's no biggie, plus I want to see you play at least once." I shook it off.
"Just do what you have to do okay?" He said.
"Okay, I will." I promised as I looked back towards the group.
But as I did I noticed Rory was standing in the corner waving me down. "I'll be right back." I told Justin as I got up off his lap and went over to Rory.
"What?" I asked.
"You have to see this." She answered as she pulled me to the front door. We stepped outside and she pointed to our house.
"Oh my god. What did you do?" I asked her. Mr. Medina was standing outside our house!
"I didn't do anything. I thought that you did something." Rory accused.
"I didn't do anything." I told her.
"Mom?" Rory called as mom walked past the door.
"Huh?" She questioned as she met us on the patio.
"Isn't that-" I started to ask, but she interrupted me.
"Oh, no."
"That's Mr. Medina" I said aloud.
"Tonight's Thursday." Mom said in realization.
"Well, am I in trouble? Did the school call?" Rory started to ask.
"No, no. You're great. It's-I, um." Mom assured us. "Let me just come back in just one sec."
"Wait. What's going on?" Rory requested an answer. "Let me tell you in a minute." Mom said as she tried to go over to Mr. Medina, but I pulled her back. "Tell us now?" I begged.
"Max is here-" She started, but Rory interjected, "Max?" "Uh, is here to pick me up." She confessed. "Pick you up for a date?" I questioned lightly.
"Oh." Rory sounded like she didn't have anything else to say. "I'm gonna talk to him real quick and I'm gonna be right back." Mom explained before she took off towards the house.
Rory and I watched as she went over and sparked a conversation with our teacher. "This is weird." I stated as mom continued to talk with our teacher.
"Yeah, it is." Rory agreed. "Well, I'm gonna head in." I told Rory. "I'll join you." She replied as we both stepped back into the house.
I walked back over to where I left the group to find only Justin sitting there. "I thought I'd wait for you." He said as he saw me.
"Thanks." I mumbled as I took a seat back on his lap.
"Are you okay?" He asked furrowing his eyebrows a bit.
"Yeah, I just- where'd the others go?" I decided to just shake off his question.
"Katie and Josh went to get some food and Belle had to go to the bathroom and Darren went with her." He informed me.
"Okay." I replied, "Do you wanna get some air?" I questioned. "Sure." He answered with a smile.
I smiled back and got off his lap so he could follow. I grabbed his hand and led him outside, behind Babette's house.
"There's a lot of gnomes back here." Justin noted as he looked around.
"Yeah, Babette's kinda gnome crazy." I mentioned as we walked.
"You sure you're okay?" He asked again as he swung our hands.
"Yeah, I think I just wanted to spend some time with you." I assured as we stopped walking.
I stood on my tip-toes and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Is that so." Justin questioned with a smirk as his hands traveled around my waist.
"Yeah." I whispered as I brushed my lips over his. He smiles then pulls me in for a slow, passionate kiss.
Justin brushes his thumbs along my cheeks and tilts his head slightly to deepen the kiss. One of my hands comes down to rest on his chest, while the other plays with his hair.
Justin's arms went back to my waist and pulled me closer than before, our chests pressed together.
I couldn't help but love this feeling. The way his lips moved with mine, how he was holding me so tightly like he was scared to let go. This kiss is making me go weak in the knees as Justin turns us around and pushes me up against the tree that was in the middle of Babette's garden.
We separated slightly to get some air before reconnecting our lips once more. I know I've said this before, but I never wanted it to stop. Justin makes me so happy and I'm comfortable with him like I never had before.
I think I love him. Wait.
I use my hands to slightly push his chest back as I pull away. "What's wrong?" He questioned as he took deep breaths.
"I have to go." I said in between breaths before I ran off to the front of Babette's house.
I saw Rory dart from the other side of the house and run up to me. "Hey." I shyly greeted as we walked up the porch.
"Hey." She said back.
"Oh-- Finally!" Mom exclaimed as she opened the front door. "I've been looking everywhere for guys."
"Well, you found us." I told mom, still a little upset that she didn't tell us about Mr. Medina. "Listen, I have some explaining to do. So sit down in those tiny chairs. I'm gonna do it right now." Mom instructed as Rory and I took a seat.
"That man on the porch was your teacher." She pointed out the obvious. "Mom, we're a little behind in school, but not so behind I don't know who the teacher is. So?" Rory sarcastically explained.
"So, um, he and I were going to sort of hang out together." She tried to explain, but we already knew.
"On a date." I pointed out. "No." She disagreed. "On something that could appear like a date to the untrained eye." She rambled, trying to not make it a date.
"And to your daughters eyes?" Rory questioned. "It was a date." Mom gave up, defeated.
"How long have you been dating him?" I asked mom, slightly irritated. "I haven't. This was going to be the first time." She admitted.
"And when were you planning on telling us. The wedding?" Rory exclaimed. "No by the rehearsal dinner at least." She tried to joke, but Rory nor I were in the mood for it.
"He's our teacher." I yelled as I stood up from the chair, which I will mention is way to close too the ground.
"I know." Mom argued. "He teaches us things every day in a small classroom with a lot of other kids who aren't going to be high-fiving me when they find out." I tried to get her to understand our point of view.
"I know sweetie. And I told him that was one of the things I was concerned about." She defended. "And?" Rory pushed. "And he felt we could be discreet." She answered. "Unbelievable." Rory scoffed. "Are you mad?" Mom asked us both.
"Uh, yea." I retorted as if it was obvious. "Right. Because I'm dating him?" She continued to question.
"Because you lied to us!" Rory yelled. "I kept information from you." Mom again tried to defend herself. "Information that we should've had." I reasoned.
"Information that would have come out eventually. Like the Iran-Contra scandal." Lorelai challenged.
"So now you're Oliver North." I chimed in. "No, I'm Fawn Hall." She shrugged. "Mom." Rory and I both replied at the same time. "She's much prettier." Mom added.
Rory let out a huff, "I just can't believe that you didn't tell us. Why didn't you tell us?" Rory was calm as she asked.
"I thought you were gonna take it bad. Thank god I was wrong." She sadly smiled. Rory and I just stood there with nothing to say.
"Okay, okay. Listen, I'm sorry." She finally apologized. "I won't date him. I promise." She added.
"We're not saying that you can't date him." I spoke up for the both of us. "It's just, this is weird. I mean there are a million guys in this world and you end up with Mr. Medina." I took my time, not wanting to argue again.
"You think I don't get the weirdness factor. Believe me the last thing I intended to do was date your teacher." She laughed at herself.
"We believe you." Rory admitted. "I really like him, girls. I can't help it." She smiled just thinking about him.
"And it's been really long since I felt like this. You can't always control who you're attracted to, y'know. I think the Angelina Jolie/Billy Bob Thornton thing really proves that. And I know you don't understand this. But you will someday. You'll meet someone great, he'll make your head all foggy, and you won't know what to do with yourself." She rambled and I couldn't help but think, that's how I feel with Justin.
"Sweets, I won't keep anything from you again. I promise. From now on, every aspect of my life is an open book to you" She finally ended her little rant.
"It's okay." Rory admitted. "Really?" Mom questioned and we nodded our heads. "I'm not even gonna get dressed until I tell you what I'm thinking of wearing." She explained.
"Fair enough." I agreed. "Okay! Tomorrow I'm thinking, the purple tiger top, the black leather skirt, the panda bear underwear?" She told us her whole outfit.
"Oh, good." Rory replied as I chuckled a bit. "But of course I'm totally open for suggestions." Mom gave in.
"Here's one." I started, "Get some help." I smiled and mom and Rory laughed a little.
~~~
After making up with mom we went back inside and enjoyed the rest of the wake, as much as we could.
Justin had stuck around for a few, giving me glances every now and then, but after a while left along with Katie, Josh, Belle and Darren.
We stayed after everyone left and helped clean up a bit, but it was getting late, so it was our turn to leave.
"Let us know if we can do anything." Mom told Babette as we all walked out onto the porch.
"Oh, you've done too much already." Babette's voice boomed from behind me.
We all gave our hugs and condolences, "Good night, Babette." I said as we separated from our hug.
"Good night sugar." She replied.
"Night Morey." I waved as we had already hugged.
"Stay cool, girls." He waved back to Rory and I as mom came between us and we walked down the steps back over to our house.
When we walked back onto the house the phone was ringing. Mom quickly went to answer as Rory closed the door behind us. As soon as mom answered I heard Grandma's voice and just decided to head upstairs to my room. It was late anyway and I was getting tired.
I quickly changed into my pajamas and laid down on my bed. Today was eventful to say the least, but at least I knew one thing,
I think I love Justin Rowan.
(A/N)
If you liked please VOTE and comment! It means a lot to me and I love seeing your comments. I will also respond as quickly as possible if there are any questions.
Love you lots xxx
Bella
May 23 2021
Word Count 3852