Bea Ashby:
"Im telling you, Jamie, he's not that interesting." I whisper lowly to my best friend as she scopes out the area, clearly searching for the boy from the jungle.
My words fall to deaf ears as she simply waves me off, "Oh, pish posh. I want to see him."
I huff at her determination. "He's not some sort of art work that you can just look at." I remind her as we near my dad's office. Jamie suddenly halts and peers through the crack of my dad's office where Justin sat in a chair, surrounded by three different doctors, including my father.
He looked bored, as if he didn't want to be there. I don't blame him. He's supposed to be in a normal living situation yet the doctors are always coming back for checkups.
"Thank you for stopping by," Dad stands up, holding his hand out to shake with the two other doctors.
I quickly push Jamie out of the way so they wouldn't find us snooping behind the door and we escape to the kitchen where we 'casually' wait for Justin and my dad to leave his office.
"So, what's he like?" Jamie asks, her eyes on Justin when he leaves the room. His back is towards us and his usual mess of unruly hair is falling over his shoulders.
"He's um...." I trail off, unsure of how to exactly describe the boy who just recently moved in with us. What was he even like? It's not like we have any actual conversations or anything. I already told Jamie about the pool incident, minus the Avocado part, and then we left it at that.
"He's okay, I guess." I decide.
Jamie gives me a weird look. "Okay? Just okay? I ask you what the guy who was trapped on an island for most of his life is like and all you say is okay?" She exclaims, throwing her hands up and letting them drop back to her sides.
Before I can respond, I feel a hard jab to the side, "Ouch, what was that for-"
"Shh, he's staring," Jamie excitedly hushes to me, her hand gripping my arm tightly. I pry her grip off me with a glare and look over to where she was pointedly looking. There Justin was, staring at the two off us. Dad walks over to his side, placing a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. He says something and then they start to approach us.
Jamie slaps my arm again, "Oh my god, he's coming this way," Jamie squeals. "Would you stop hitting me?" I respond. Damn it, she's acting as if he's some sort of celebrity.
"Hi, Jamie." Dad greets and Jamie replies smoothly with a gentle hello. Justin stays quiet, his brown eyes staring right at me in a not so discreet manner. Uncomfortably, I shift my weight under his stare and look away. "Have you met, Justin?"
"Actually, I haven't," Dad introduces Justin to my best friend. He seems a little uninterested which doesn't surprise me. Justin never looks like he wants anything to do with anyone, not even with me. He only seems to be okay around my dad, which no doubt must have taken him some time to get to that level of trust.
"Beatrice, can I talk to you?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Excuse us," Dad pulls me aside and looks back over at Justin for a second where he stood in front of Jamie. She's saying something to him, but I'm not sure if he's even listening. Not that he would understand much, anyway.
"I was wondering if you would take Justin out somewhere tomorrow. You can bring Jamie, Noah or Hayden along too, if you like." Dad whispers.
His words make my head snap up so fast I'm surprised I didn't give myself whiplash. "Let me get this straight, you trust me enough to take Justin out somewhere without you?" He can't be serious.
"Well, I'm not asking you to take him somewhere far away. Just go for a walk or take him out for lunch or something. I think it's important him to be out and around different people for a little bit. Not too long or anything. If anything happens, just give me a call. Can you do this for me?" He asks.
Sighing, I look back over where to where Justin still stood with Jamie. "Yeah, sure." I give in much too easily and Dad smiles.
"Thank you. Now there's someone coming over tomorrow to tutor and help Justin so we can work on his verbal communication, but after that you guys can go out for a couple of hours." Dad quickly utters before leaving me behind to return to his new ward.
He pats Justin's shoulder and nods his head to the side, indicating for him to follow him back to his office and he does, glancing back me momentarily before he goes.
Jamie slides over to me happily and I sigh, "Stop it, you're acting like he's some celebrity," I say, "Which he's not." I add at the end and Jamie rolls her eyes, "I know that. He's actually really good-looking, don't you think?" Jamie says to me as he head up to my room.
"Jamie?"
"Yeah?"
"Please stop talking."
And I get another slap to the arm.
~
Someone rings the doorbell the next morning at 10 A.M. It's a man with a satchel and I'm assuming he's the tutor dad hired to help Justin with his communication skills. "Is this the Ashby residence?" He asks politely.
I nod, opening the door wider. "Are you Mr Lawfeld?"
"Yes, that would be me." He smiles and I allow him to enter through the doorway.
Dad appears by the door in the matter of seconds, "Mr Lawfeld, nice to see you again." The two guys shake hands, "Great to be back."
"If you'll follow me, I'll take you to my office. Justin will be down in two minutes, how was your vacation?" Dad asks, leading Mr Lawfeld further into the house. As the other man talks, dad looks back at me and points to the stairs and I'm guessing he wants me to go fetch Justin.
Sighing, I climb up the stairs and try my very best to push away any anxious thoughts.
Rather than barging in, I knock on Justin's door and hear a grunt from the other side. I take this as my permission to enter.
Slowly, I open the door and peak my head inside. "Justin?" I softly call out to him.
No reply.
His bed is made which surprises me, but I don't see him. Opening the door wider, I hesitantly take a step inside. "Justin, where- oh," I breathe out when I see Justin walk out of the attached bathroom in his bedroom, shirtless might I add.
He's staring at me, his long hair draping over his face like a curtain. "You need to go downstairs, to my dad's office." I say using gestures, unsure if he understood.
Justin nods and I take that has if he understood me before turning to head downstairs. Out of nowhere, I feel a hand clasp onto my wrist, turning me back around in shock. My lips part and my eyes are wide in shock.
Justin's finger lightly trails over to the hair tie on my wrist. I look down at it for a second before meeting his gaze again. "You want me to tie your hair back?" I ask, motioning to his hair. Justin doesn't respond this time. Instead, he walks towards the bed and sits down on it, motioning me to follow.
I do and sit behind him and he patiently waits for me to tie his hair back. I can feel his eyes staring at me through the large mirror in front of us, but I don't look back at him. Instead, I pull his hair back from his face and tie it back for him.
His hair is really nice and silky, the type of hair you always want to run your fingers through. "There," I say when I'm done. Looking up, I finally meet his gaze through the mirror. His brown eyes flicker to the door for a second and then back at me.
"T-thanks, Avocado." He says before he's already up and out the bedroom door, leaving me alone in his room.
Avocado.
He called me an avocado... again. I sigh, standing up. I should change before I go out with Justin today. I decided to take Milo for a walk and then we would make a quick stop by a cafe or something to get a quick drink of coffee or something. Later today, I'm going to Jamie's place where a few of our friends were invited, including Grant whom I was excited to see.
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A/N:
I might do a double update today. We'll see.
THANK YOU FOR BEING SO PATIENT WITH THIS UPDATE! Hopefully, I'll update again today :)
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-Diana