"Oh that was so amazing!" Jennifer exclaimed when her and Maribelle finally entered their hotel room after a concert. Jennifer let herself fall on the bed and closed her eyes, exhausted. "I don't think I could ever get tired of dancing on that stage."
Maribelle laughed. "I can, that was exhausting!" she said, and Jennifer laughed.
"But Belle, don't you love the feeling of... of... of exhilaration when we perform? It's intoxicating!" Jennifer said dreamily.
"I do, but exhaustion wins over once we stop moving." Maribelle joked, and Jennifer sat up to throw a pillow at her.
"I'm serious! I can dance forever." Jennifer said, taking on that dreamy tone once again, and Maribelle laughed.
"I bet you can, you practice the most out of all of us combined!" Maribelle cried, but before Jennifer could respond, her phone rang. "Hello? Oh hey!"
"Hey Lover Boy!" Jennifer called tiredly, and Maribelle threw a pillow at her to silence her, but it only made Jennifer laugh.
"No, we're not doing anything, wanna come over? Okay. See you soon. Bye." Maribelle said in her phone, and threw another pillow at Jennifer, who laughed.
"Looks like Lover Boy is gonna get lucky." Jennifer teased, and Maribelle threw her last pillow at Jennifer, who threw it back.
"Shut up before I call Justin over here too."
"Oh, I'm so scared." Jennifer said sarcastically, and Maribelle narrowed her eyes at her. "Whenever we hang out, he mostly just watches me read, so by all means, I'll invite Celeste and Austin too!"
"You're the worst!" Maribelle cried, and jumped over her bed to attack Jennifer, who was laughing so hard her stomach hurt. Jennifer managed to grab a pillow to cover her face while Maribelle started beating her with another pillow.
"Rape! Please Mister, I'm underage!" Jennifer screamed, laughing, and Maribelle stopped hitting her and started laughing. "Whoo, glad that's ov-no Mister please, I'm underage!"
Both girls were laughing so hard and so loud that they didn't hear when someone knocked at the door. Finally, when they had to resort to literally kicking the door, Jennifer and Maribelle quietly went to the door, and Jennifer opened it a little to see Alex, Justin, Celeste, and Austin waiting there with their overnight clothes and pillows.
"Belle, we have company." Jennifer whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Password?" she said clearly.
"Open the door please?" Alex said nicely, and Jennifer slammed the door shut, both girls laughing uncontrollably.
"That was the wrong password!" Jennifer yelled, and everyone was laughing. She opened the door a crack again. "Wanna try again?"
"How bout you open the door before I stomp your face in?" Celeste suggested playfully.
"Wrong passwor-OW!" she screamed when Maribelle hit her with a pillow, knocking her over and opening the door for everyone. They started laughing, and Jennifer grabbed another pillow and ran at Maribelle, who's back was to her and smacked her across the head with the pillow.
Pretty soon, everyone was laughing and throwing pillows. When they'd calmed down a bit, Jennifer grabbed her pajamas and ran to the bathroom before anyone else could, laughing so hard her stomach hurt at their reactions.
Once everyone had settled down and were ready for bed, Jennifer had immersed herself in her book and music while Maribelle and Celeste played cards, and the guys were just watching the girls, fixated on their activities. Justin leaned on Jennifer's bed, and watched as she read, Alex and Austin were telling the two girls the other's cards, all three girls aware of the guy's attention to them.
"Why do you like watching me read so much?" Jennifer asked, pulling an earbud out of her ear, and turning to Justin. He smiled up at her.
"I don't know. You make funny faces when you read." He replied, and Jennifer blushed. "Your hair's down today." He added.
"Must you notice everything about me?" Jennifer asked, exasperated, and Justin chuckled.
"Yep." He said simply, and Jennifer playfully rolled her eyes and put the earbud back in her ear and turned her attention back to TheHunger Games. Justin chuckled again and started playfully pulling her hair, purposefully annoying her.
"Can you stop?" Jennifer asked, laughing. "I swear, you're like a kindergartner!"
"Yeah don't they pull the object of their affection's hair?" Justin asked, tugging on her hair a little harder, making her laugh and pull away.
"No, I think they take their juice box." Jennifer replied, laughing. Justin fell silent, so Jennifer went back to her reading. Justin started playing with Jennifer's hair while she read.
"You know I was in boy scouts?" Justin said, and Jennifer looked up to face Justin.
"No you weren't!" she said incredulously. Justin laughed and continued to play with her hair.
"Yes I was! I'm practicing my knots right now." He said, and Jennifer rolled her eyes and shook her head playfully. Justin brushed through her hair with his fingers, making her relax as she went through one chapter, then closed her book and faced Justin.
"You are a major distraction, you know that?" she asked, and he laughed.
"Thank you."
"It was not a compliment." She said, but smiled anyway. Justin laughed and pulled Jennifer's book from her hands.
"Let the seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!" he read in an announcer's voice, and everybody turned to look at him, then laughed at his outrageous expression. Jennifer snatched the book from his hands, but couldn't stop herself from laughing.
"You're so... abnormal!" Jennifer cried, and Justin laughed.
"A simple 'you're weird' would have been acceptable." He said, and Jennifer rolled her eyes. Maribelle and Celeste laughed.
"Have you met Jennifer?? Her vocabulary is higher than an English teacher's." Maribelle said, her eyes fixated on her cards, while everyone else laughed and Jennifer blushed and looked down.
"It is not," she said quietly. Justin smirked and continued to play with Jennifer's hair. She gave an exasperated sigh and he laughed.
"You're never gonna leave me alone, are you?" she asked, and he laughed and shook his head. "Ugh, you're incorrigible!"
"What's that mean?" upon hearing that, Jennifer started laughing. She started laughing so hard she laid back and buried her face in the pillow, her shoulders shaking. "What's so funny??"
"You!" she cried, laughing. She looked up from the pillow, still giggling. "Incorrigible means that you're impervious to correction, by punishment." Justin furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, then smoothed them out and smiled in amusement.
"But you didn't punish me. And what does impervious mean?" he asked, which brought Jennifer to another round of uncontrollable giggles.
"It means... you're not affected by things." She said, still giggling. Justin laughed, and poked her side, making her flinch back.
"I'm affected by things." He said staring at her intently, and she gave him a confused look.
"Like what?" she asked, but he shook his head.
"Nothing." He said, after a moment's pause. Jennifer looked at him, scrutinizing his expression, but finding nothing.
"Aw you bitch!" they heard Maribelle say, and started laughing. "Fine, you hooker, you win!" when everyone started laughing at her, she flung her arms in the air "Oh, shut up! I'm going to sleep!"
"It is pretty late," Jennifer agreed after checking her phone. "We should all get to bed." Everyone agreed and climbed into bed: Austin and Celeste made a bed on the floor, Alex climbed into Maribelle's bed, after a playful argument between them, and Justin made himself comfortable on Jennifer's bed. "Umm, excuse me, what are you doing??" she playfully scolded Justin, a hand on her hip.
"Goin' to bed, how bout you?" he asked, a smirk plastered on his face. Jennifer tried pushing him off, but he wouldn't budge.
"Did I say you could sleep on my bed??" she asked, and everyone laughed. Justin continued to smirk as he shut off the light on his side of the bed, making the room go dark. Justin grabbed Jennifer by her wrists and laid her on the pillow, still silently laughing. "You're a sneaky one."
Justin shrugged in the dark. "I'm known for that. I'm tired, too much singing. Can I go to sleep now?" he whispered, and Jennifer silently laughed.
"Not on my bed!" she whispered. Justin leaned in closed to her, surprising her.
"Pleeeaaassseee?" he asked, his breath warm against her ear. Jennifer felt chills go through her body, then sighed.
"I guess, but just this once. Don't expect it to be an everyday occurance, you jerk." She said, and playfully hit him, pulling her wrists out of his grasp. He gave a silent, breathy laugh before pulling back the covers and they both slipped in.
When Jennifer moved to the far end of the bed, away from Justin, he pulled her to him, arms around her waist, making her stomach drop. "I'm scared of the dark." He said in a little kid voice, making Jennifer laugh. "Make the bad dreams go away." He whispered in her ear, nuzzling his face in her cucumber melon smelling hair.
"I'm sorry, I don't know how." She said, and tried to pull away, but Justin had a tight grip on her torso.
"Oh, just by you being here makes me unafraid," he whispered, making Jennifer blush and grateful for the dark room. "The nightmares are too scared of you to make their way to me." Jennifer blushed again.
"Yeah right." She whispered, and he gave another breathy laugh.
"Yeah, you know why?" he paused. "'Cause you're the perfect dreamcatcher." Jennifer blushed again, and laughed quietly.
"Go to sleep, Justin." she whispered. "You must be exhausted."
"I don't wanna sleep." He said. "If I could stay awake forever in this moment, I would." Jennifer felt like her face was going to permanently blush if he kept this up, and Justin knew she was blushing just by the way she hid her face, even in the dark. Justin yawned, because despite his feelings, he was, in fact, exhausted from the concert. Jennifer turned to face him, and started petting his hair, something she did to the fussy babies that she would babysit for.
As Jennifer was petting Justin's hair, she started humming a lullaby her and Jeremy made up.
Go to sleep
Close your tired eyes
'Cause tomorrow
When the sun begins to rise
There'll be a new day
A thousand opportunities
A billion new ways
To fall for you again
Despite his better efforts, the calming tune Jennifer sang in whispers was having an affect on him, and he closed his eyes, but continued to listen.
Go to sleep, my darling
I'll be here when you wake
Close your eyes, my love
Dream pleasant dreams, for my sake
One day when we're old and grey
We'll meet our end in the same way
Holding each other tight,
Kissing each other good night
And then I'll say
Go to sleep, my darling
I'll be here when you wake
Close your eyes, my love
So we can cross the pearly gates
One day when we're dead and gone
We'll walk the clouds,
Singing the same song
Go to sleep, my darling
I'll still be in your arms when you wake
Close your eyes, my love
Stay and hold me,
Keep me safe.
As soon as Jennifer finished her song, Justin was fast asleep. She stayed up, and thought. She thought about what she was feeling in that moment. Did she like the way Justin was holding her? It'd been so long since she was held like that.
"Don't dwell on the fact that I'm gone. Move on, Jennie." The words bounced around in her head again. Was she ready to move on from the one person she was sure she loved most in her life? She turned to the boy that was snoring slightly next to her. Conflicting emotions flooded her, and she fell asleep, unsure of her feelings once again.