I was confused. No, confused was an understatement. I seriously didn’t know what to do with myself. When Justin sees me, what should I do? Hug him? Glare at him? Sure, I didn’t like him nor did I want to spend the day at his house, but maybe he had a good heart. Fans liked him.
I wish I had fans.
Sighing, my eyes roamed to the trees that sped by in a blur as we cruised down the highway. First, I’d have to stay at his house for a few nights until they set out for the tour. Both sets of parents decided it would be best so we could break the ice that had been forming since our childhood.
“We’re here Ms. Jones.” Spoke the driver.
Whipping my head up, I became frightened.
“What? How? We were just on the highway!” Shouting, I refused his extended hand.
I wasn’t close to being ready for the meeting. My nerves started to tremble and sweat started to smear my tasteful make up. Pushing myself out of the seat, I reminded myself that I was Miranda Jones and no guy could faze me.
“Miranda!” Someone yelled, making me turn my head. To my huge surprise, Justin was jogging towards me. To an even bigger surprise, he was shirtless and…sweaty. This made my nose scrunch up in disgust. However, as he came closer, I got a better look of him. As I did that, my disgusted face dropped as it was replaced with a blush.
He had muscles, probably from a personal trainer. Golden hair fell down right above his sparkling green eyes. The eyes that sparkled with kindness, but immaturity. He was sexy.
“H-Hi Justin.”
Why did I just stutter?
“Sorry, I’m really sweaty, but I was shooting some hoops.” He gave me a celebrity smile.
“It’s really good seeing you.” I had an urge to hug him, but resisted.
“Good seeing you too.” A half smile raised and with no amount of force could I turn it down. What was happening to me? Get a hold of yourself!
I heard Eddie go and get my bags from the trunk.
"Oh, wow, you still have your own driver?” He said, but with more of shame for me than amazement. “Didn’t change, huh?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped.
No longer was I planning to drool over him.
“Nothing…” He trailed off, a wave of sadness crossing his strong features. “Let me show you inside!” Justin started again, pulling together some enthusiasm. I wasn’t sure if it was real or not, but I just went along with it.
Turning towards his house, I was struck with shock. And, not in a good way. It was average. Completely average. There was no difference between his house and any ordinary family. No fancy landscaping, gazebos, or extravagant pools. Just a simple and white two story house with dark green shutters. A few bushes were planted and I guessed that a small basketball court was built in the backyard.
“Not to your liking?” He questioned, catching me off guard.
“You’re rich, why don’t you have a mansion?” I fired at him, almost in rage.
With a completely calm face he let out a small laugh and took the bags from Eddie, shocking the both of us.Confused, I simply followed him through the front door and up some carpeted stairs. Somehow, he managed to carry all of my bags towards a door and manage to open it.
“Welcome to your new room!” He boomed, dumping all of my things on the floor.
“Careful with that! It’s expensive!” I shrieked, the thought of my many perfumes shattering made my skin crawl. Kneeling to my stuff, I searched through to make sure my perfume bag was still intact. Thankfully, it was. Once I stood up, I caught a glimpse of Justin rolling his eyes, but ignored it. Wow, he was sending quiet some mixed messages to me. Not that I was much clearer.
“What is this?” I snorted, staring at the dark green walls that boxed me in.
“My room.” He stated, as if this was normal.“Sorry, you’ll have to be sharing it with me.”
“What!?” I yelled, a long scream coming soon after. “W-With you? Don’t you have a guest room?”
“Nope.” He casually said, ignoring my outburst. Why didn’t he even care? Everyone in my house would fix everything in a second and all he could do was lie on his bed?
Huffing, I just stood there until I could calm down. “Isn’t there somewhere else I could sleep?”
“The basement.”
_______________________
“You sure you want to sleep here?” Once again Justin asked.
“Like you care.” I hissed, twisting my body inside the heavy sleeping bag given to me.
Yes, I was now sleeping in a basement, a cold and dark basement, in a cheap sleeping bag. Normally, I’d be against this, but it was apart of my tantrum. Justin’s parents were already out of town to put things in order for the tour so it was just Justin and I.
“You’re always welcome back into my room.” Raising his arms up, he turned around to walk up the stairs. With a click, the lights were off and I was left to rot down here. Well, it was a slight exaggeration, but the basement was never a safe place to be.The killers always came to the basement. Rats lived in the basement. Everything bad and heart stopping happened in the basement.
However, when I try to prove a point, I stick with it. Before I came down here, I asked to sleep in every room of the house.
“No,” He told me.
What sense did that make?
So, here I was. In the basement. Shifting around, I tried to fall asleep, but nothing was working. Gurgling noises echoed in down here through the pipes. Whether it was my frantic imagination or the truth, I heard rats crawling on the floor and that was enough to drive my out of here. Quietly, I tip toed out of the room.
Scared, sleeping alone didn’t seem like an option for me. So, I creeped back into Justin’s room and settled onto the floor. Uncomfortable and tears forming, I closed my eyes. I felt pathetic and ridiculous. Somehow, sleep started to dawn on me and I figured it was already past midnight.
My eyes started swimming with hopes for dreams. However, as I almost fell asleep, something disturbed my trance. Something wrapped around me and I was heaved up and into something soft. Without question, my body soaked into the comfortable atmosphere.
“Morning!” Something yelled, making my eyebrows push together.
“Go away.” I moaned, not even realizing who was trying to wake me up.
Something cold touched me and my eyes flew open. Above my head was a bright yellow bucket.
“Wake up or I’ll dump this on you!” Grinned Justin, bringing me back to reality.
“What is it?”
“A bucket of ice water?” He said in a tone that made me sound stupid. “Haven’t you ever seen someone wake someone up like this? Or even do it yourself?”
“Um, no?” I shrugged. Boy, this kid was immature.
“You’ve missed out.” Slumping out of a mattress, I realized I was moved last night.
“Did you move me?” I asked, getting a nod in response. “That was nice of you, but you didn’t have to sleep on the floor.”
“Oh, I didn’t.” He smiled.
“Y-You slept with me?” Mixed emotions whirled around me. A blush started to set fire to my face along with an annoyed stir in my stomach.
“Fully clothed, don’t worry.” He winked, walking out of the room. “I-I didn’t mean it like that!” I yelled, but Justin was already out of the room.
Assuming he left me to change, I bent down into my stuff to search for a dress or something to wear. I wanted to look pretty for Justin, but I still yelled at myself for it. What was he doing to me? I have been a complete mess of feelings since I had arrived and nothings ever done that to me. I was always in control. One second he made me mad and the next he did something sweet.
Jesus, it’s only been one night and already I was falling apart. This couldn’t be good.
Slipping off my silk pajamas, I stepped into some designer skinny jeans. As I roamed through my sea of clothes for a shirt, I heard the door click open. In surprise, I straightened up to see who it was, but realized how big of a mistake that was. With no shirt, I faced Justin’s pale face before I immediately shoved myself under my luggage. Thank God I at least had a bra.
“Ah!” He yelped, shutting the door.
“Sorry!” In complete embarrassment, I shoved myself into a random shirt and opened the door for him. What else could go wrong for me?
“Um…we can pretend that never happened.” I muttered, letting him in.
He nodded and stepped inside.
“I made some breakfast.”
“You don’t have a chef?” I already figured the answer, but the thought was still surreal to me.
“No Mandy, I don’t.” Mandy? I’ve never heard that before…
“Come on, let’s go eat.” Together, we walked down stairs. For him, this was a normal breakfast. For me, this was the time I planned to decipher the exact character of Justin.
From being with him for a day, I knew he had many different sides. How could I control these sides? How could I use them for my advantage? And how could I play with them? All of my selfish plans churned into my head, ignoring my inner voice telling me that he was a nice guy and that I truly would love him in the end.