;)
~
Bea Ashby:
Today, Noah, Jennifer, my dad and I were all seated together in the living room where caterers served us different types of dishes that Jennifer and dad would pick for the wedding.
Jennifer scrunches her face, pushing away the slice of cake. "Way too much cream." She says, wiping the side of her mouth with a napkin.
"Agreed." We all say in unison, pushing away our own plates.
That last slice of cake we had tasted like nothing, but cream. It was all too much for me, personally. We've been sitting here for the past couple of hours, taste testing desserts and I felt like I was going to throw up.
A caterer returns with a new slice of cake, this time, a chocolate slice drizzled in some sort of slice, topped off with a bit of cream and something red gushing from the inside. "Chocolate cake with cream, a chocolate drizzle and a strawberry drizzle filling with bits of strawberries on the inside." He says, placing everyone a plate in front of them.
"Oh no," I groan, shutting my eyes closed. I want to eat it, but I can't! It's too much. I'm stuffed from desserts and I think if I even continue to look at it I might just throw up.
"I want to eat it," Noah whines, lifting his fork up, but he simply drops it back onto his plate. "Why must this be so difficult?" Jennifer waves him off, "Oh don't be so dramatic." She says, but I can see that she is also tired and full from all of this taste testing.
"One bite." Noah pushes himself, eating the forkful of cake. "Shoo guuudd." He manages to mumble with the cake in his mouth.
I snort at the sight of a chocolate and red strawberry filling dripping down the side of his mouth. I toss him a napkin which falls into his lap. He picks it up and starts to wipe his chin. "It's too messy."
"I agree with Bea on that," Dad says. "But it is very tasty."
Noah shovels another mouthful of cake into his mouth, giving him a thumbs up. "I want to marry this slice of cake."
We all look at him and Noah's eyes widen before he looks away, grumbling something incoherent to us about the cake.
Dad chuckles, "How about we focus on our wedding first and then we can start plans for Noah's marriage with his, um, slice of cake."
Noah just nods, giving my dad two thumbs up again as he chews his food. I chuckle, shaking my head at him.
We hear footsteps emerging from upstairs and coming down the steps and soon enough, Justin has appeared in the living room. The staff notices him and everyone discreetly takes a step back, making me scowl.
"He doesn't bite, you know," I say out loud, not caring whatsoever if I would get in trouble for saying that to them.
Everyone just nods, a little embarrassed by their actions and resume to their work on bringing in more food or taking away our plates.
Justin doesn't say or acknowledge any of it as he moves away and disappears into the direction of my dad's office which probably means Mr. Lawfeld would be here soon for his tutoring session. He hasn't been here for a while since before Justin's isolation, but now he's back again. Justin hasn't been talking so they are mostly just working on writing, according to dad.
"So, are you guys going to buy Justin a tux for the wedding?" Noah asks out of nowhere.
Jennifer and dad send each other a look.
Dad adjusts his tie, sitting up straight. "Uh actually... we haven't quite decided whether or not Justin should come..." He trails off. "I want him to be there, but I don't think it would be best for him if everyone just attacks him like last time."
My jaw drops. "Whoever attacked him when you guys were up there on stage shouldn't even be invited." I snap.
"Beatrice," Jennifer warns and I hold back the urge to roll my eyes. I understand my dad's point, but seriously, if they can't understand that Justin is a good person, then why bother showing up or being rude. If you have nothing good to say then don't say anything at all. I know I was quick to judge as well, but I was just in shock from Justin's action. My mind's been cleared and now I know for sure that Justin doesn't mean any harm and everyone should get that through their thick skulls.
"Look, we just don't think it's the best idea if he attends. There's still some time left, so we don't need to worry about this yet." Jennifer places a hand on my dad's shoulder.
I stand up, mumbling incoherently to them before escaping to my bedroom. Milo was sleeping on my bed and I joined him, scratching behind his ears.
Today I had plans to take Justin out to the indoor field where Noah goes to train for soccer during winter time. Dad knows the guy who owns the indoor field and agreed to let us use it for a night. This was part of getting Justin to open up and enjoy his time here in New York.
A few hours later, Mr. Lawfeld leaves and I'm quick to call out to Justin. "We're leaving!" I call out to my dad. "Alright, keep me updated on how everything is going. I might send Noah to check up on you guys every couple of hours." Dad says. That was another one of our rules. Since I was taking Justin somewhere away from our home, we needed someone to come check up on us every now and then. I didn't mind that much.
I drive us to the indoor field and we head inside. The field is large and covered in fake grass. Two big nets were on either side of the field and the bright stadium lights shone down on us.
I pulled out a soccer ball and kicked it over to Justin. I'm not the best at soccer, but I've played a few times. I know Noah is pretty good at it from the few times that dad forced me to attend his games, but also because he's got a whole lot of trophies and medals around the house.
Justin just stares at the ball. "Come on," I urge him, "Just kick it the ball to the net."
He blinks.
I'm about to speak up again when before I know it, Justin is gliding his leg back and with all his strength kicking it from one end of the field to the other, getting it right in the net. The ball swivels so quickly in the air, I'm standing there in shock, trying to comprehend how he did that.
He looks at me as if to say 'there, happy?' and I just look gobsmacked.
"How did you..." I trail off, shaking my head. This man has super strength or something because there is no way someone who hasn't played soccer before be able to kick a soccer ball and get it into the net that's so far down the field. I mean this indoor field wasn't your average indoor field. It's one of the best for the best players out there.
"That was awesome!" I finally exclaim, sprinting down to the other end of the field. We continue to pass the ball back and forward and even kick it up to the ceiling before I start laughing about how we were so going to get into trouble if we broke a light or anything.
Not only do we play soccer, but we just start to act silly by rolling down on the fake grass from one side of the field the other. It's so great to see Justin's smile back on his face as we do so and I can't help, but stare at him in awe. He's just so beautiful.
We were currently chasing each other around the field. Justin was sprinting behind me and I couldn't help but shriek as he got closer and closer. His long legs took long, quick, strides as he sprinted behind me and I forced myself to move faster.
I turn back around and yell as I see that I'm about to hit the pole of the soccer net. "Holy crap!" I yell, stopping right away, only for Justin to collide into my back.
We both stumble to the ground from his force and I can't help, but laugh at how ridiculous this was. Here we were, running around and goofing off on an indoor soccer field in December, two months after Justin was put into isolation.
I feel him place a hand gently on my arm and I sit up, looking at Justin who was already staring at me. He nods his head to the side and I notice Noah there with Jamie and her brother Hayden...? Why were they here?
"Hey guys," I call out.
"I ran into these two on my way here." Noah points to the siblings and I grin, waving. Justin looks away, feeling uncomfortable. His smile has completely vanished and I find myself being annoyed with their presence.
"Everything okay in here?" I send a thumbs up their way. "All good!" I call out.
"I'll text you later, Jamie!" I yell to my best friend who smiles and nods. Noah tells us they are going to leave because it's getting late and I'm surprised to find out that we've been here for about three hours. "Your dad want's to know when you guys will come back." He said.
"Soon," I vaguely reply, assuring him that I would text my dad to let him know when we would return.
When the three leave, I notice that Justin is suddenly closed off once again and I notice that there's no point in pushing him to open up a bit.
"Do you want to head back home?"
He just shrugs. Sighing, I bring myself up from the ground and start to pack up our things. I'm absolutely drenched in sweat so I go to the girl's change room and get out of my sweaty clothes. I put some deodorant on and put on a bit of body mist to freshen up. I then proceed to retie my hair up into a ponytail and bundle up in my winter jacket, ready to head out into the cold December air.
Justin has done the same and when he's ready, we head out. I texted my dad as well, letting him know we were going to return home. When we reach my car I notice that it's only eleven thirty. The drive home is silent and when I pull up to the driveway, Justin gets out of the car. Sighing, I shut off the engine and head out as well.
I stop when I notice Justin looking a few houses down, inspecting the snowman outside on their front yard.
"It's a snowman," I tell him, standing by his side.
"W-what is?" He asks, talking for the first time. Every time I manage to get a work out of him feels like the first time he's ever spoken to me. It's always exciting.
"I'll show you," I smile. Justin already had some gloves on and I go back to my car to fetch my own. Justin watches in total confusion as I start to make a ball of snow. Luckily tonight we had pack snow so it would stick together.
I start to push the ball on the ground, letting it collect as much snow as possible. Soon enough, it starts to get heavy and I wave Justin over to come help me push. He's hesitant, but he does as told and helps me push the large snowball.
When it's decently large as a base snowball, we start to work on the second one. Justin seems so fascinated and amazed from this new discovery it makes me smile.
Justin is obviously quite strong and managed to get the snowballs to stack on top of each other with some of my assistance, but I knew it was mostly all him. "Okay, now we got to find some things to create a face," I tell him.
We set out on a hunt in the dark to find objects to put on our snowman. We gather some sticks, a few rocks we had from our garden that we dug out from under the snow and we even managed to put some 'hair' on it.
"Avocado." Justin chuckles, pointing to the snowman.
I laughed, crossing my arms over my chest. "Oh no, my hair is much longer than that. If anything, I think that's you." I tease him.
That's when I notice the tint of pink rise onto Justin's cheeks.
Whether or not that was because of my comment or from being out in the cold for too long, I couldn't help, but find it extremely adorable.
He bashfully looked away, a little embarrassed as well. "Yep, this is totally you." I kid again.
"Okay, time to head inside." I say, turning towards the front of the house. It was absolutely freezing out here!
I look back and notice Justin shake his head, pointing to the backyard and I sigh, going back over to him. "You can't sleep out here, Justin. You know that. It's too cold out here."
He just shakes his head again and retreats to the backyard. I follow behind him and watch as he fails to climb up his safety tree due to the ice that covered it some parts of it. He eventually gives up and settles down onto the snow-covered cushions outside that were covered up for the winter.
"Fine," I sigh, plopping down to the snow. "I guess I'll just sleep out here with you."
Justin's eyes me as if he didn't believe me. I simply shrugged and pulled my hood over my beanie covered head and laid back into the fluffy snow. Soon enough, more snow started to gently fall from the sky before it came down in a much more rapid speed. The wind was starting to pick up and I could feel the temperature drop even lower.
My teeth were chattering, but I would hold my stand. He can't just sleep out here in the freaking cold! If he's going to be here all night long, then I need to prove to him that I would do it too.
Closing my eyes, I try not to think about how cold I was. I was starting to worry because it seemed like Justin was making no move to go back inside.
Time goes by and neither of us makes a move to go back inside.
That's when I felt a hand nudging my shoulder, but my eyes kept themselves closed. "Cold," I mutter out, visibly shivering. I felt like my eyes were glued closed for some reason. I was just so tired and cold.
Then I feel it. Justin is suddenly scooping me up into his arms and carrying me back to the house. He manages to open the front door and carry me inside before kicking off his boots and taking me upstairs.
I feel my body instantly try to absorb the heat, but it was still too cold. My face felt frozen and I wouldn't be surprised if my fingers and toes had fallen off.
Justin's feet are quick to carry me to my room and that's when I realize this is the first time he's ever been inside my room.
"Justin," I croak out, but he doesn't answer as he anxiously attempts to open the doors in my bedroom until he finds my bathroom.
He places me gently onto the counter and I lean against the mirror, watching as he fumbles with the taps that controlled the water.
He's still visibly shivering, but he doesn't seem to care. He manages to get the hot water started and closes the glass door to the shower, letting the steam build up on the inside.
Justin turns back to me, pulls the hood off my head and my beanie. He struggles with my zipper before reaching to the top of my jacket and ripping it right open.
My eyes widen in shock from his actions and finally jolts me up. Soon my sweater is being taken off and I'm left in my t-shirt, pants and snow boots. Justin leans down and rapidly pulls my boots down, throwing them aside.
He then scoops me back into his arms and opens the shower door, pushing me inside the large shower. Even under the hot shower, my body felt cold, but it eventually seemed to warm up a bit. Without even thinking, I grabbed Justin, who had taken off his snow jacket and pants, only leaving him in his boxers and a shirt, by the front of his shirt and pulled him under the hot water with me.
Before either of us could quite understand what was going on, Justin grabbed my face and kissed me.
I gasped at first but didn't hesitate to move my lips against his. His touch was still somewhat cold against my cheeks, despite the hot water falling over our heads, but his lips were instantly warming up my own.
The coldness from his lips started to fade as we kissed, desperately holding each other close.
I didn't care how weird this was. I didn't have time to because all I could focus on in that moment was Justin.
Justin and I were kissing.
The boy from the jungle whom I've only met back in August were kissing. It felt so good, but eventually, we had to pull away in order to breath. Argh, human priorities.
Justin's deep brown eyes stared at me in slight shock, one hand was kept on my cheek and the other had slid down to my waist, barely hovering above it as he seemed unsure if it was okay to touch me there.
I simply took his large hand and placed it down on my waist, letting his fingers firmly grip it. I didn't mind if I was soaking wet under a shower in a t-shirt and jeans. It didn't matter.
My hand left his and traveled up to his face, pushing away the wet strands of hair from his eyes. We stood under the hot shower for what seemed like forever, holding each other close.
Justin's arms were wrapped around me, holding me close to his body. My head was against his chest and I could feel his heart beat. It was so soothing to listen to that I knew that if I could, I would close my eyes and listen to it for the rest of the night.
Unfortunately, that couldn't happen. Eventually, Justin had pulled away and turned off the water when we both felt warm enough. He was the first to step out before taking my hand and gently leading me out of the large shower.
I nodded to one of the cabinets that held my towels and Justin opened it, pulling out three fluffy white towels.
I just stood there, motionless in the middle of my bathroom with water dripping down my body, but I couldn't care any less from the mess on my floor. Justin wrapped a towel around me and instantly started to dry up my body before discarding the wet towel to the side and wrapping a fresh one around me.
He grabbed the other fresh towel and wrapped it around himself before leading the two of us out of my bathroom. He was quick to familiarize himself with my room as he searched my dresser for clothes. He pulls out a new set of clothes and sheepishly pulls out some underwear and a bra, looking at me to see if what he was holding was something I needed to wear.
I take the clothes from him, setting them aside before reaching out to kiss him.
He's surprised at first, but he eventually relaxes and kisses me back gently, cupping my cheek with his hand.
I pull away, dropping the towel to the floor and start to peel my shirt off. I watch the look of shock on Justin's face through the mirror and watch as he quickly turns away the moment his eyes see my exposed chest, only covered by a wet bra. He instantly makes a move to turn around, being the gentle-jungle-boy-man he is and I unclasp my bra, slipping the straps off. When I'm done changing, I grab the towels and wet clothes from the floor and put them into the basket in my bathroom.
"You can turn back around," I tell him in a gentle voice. He slowly turns back around and his eyes land on me once again, making my heartbeat beat quickly.
He's still in his wet clothes so I quietly head to his room and walk out with a pair of joggers, a pair of boxer shorts and t-shirt from his dresser. I pass Noah in the hallway and he just raises an eyebrow at me. I shrug and he slightly smiles. "You're lucky that your dad and my mom are such heavy sleepers." Is all he says before slipping back into his bedroom, closing the door shut behind him.
Justin dries off and changes into his clothes and I make sure I don't watch to give him some privacy. I patiently wait on my bed until he joins me under the covers. When he does, I pull the covers over us, letting it engulf us.
I feel Justin gingerly place his arm around me as if he was unsure if he was allowed to. I just snuggled close into this chest, giving him a sign that it was okay.
If Jennifer or my dad woke up and decided to check on me or Justin tomorrow and find us sleeping in my bed together then that was a future Bea's problem because right now, I couldn't be bothered. I was just so tired yet happy at the same time that the thought of them finding us like this couldn't bother me like it should have.
I yawn, closing my eyes. "Goodnight, Justin." I murmur into his chest.
Justin's warm lips press against my forehead. "Goodnight, Avocado."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N:
Tbh this was the most strangest kiss i've ever written about LMAO. Idek what i was thinking when I wrote this or planned this out, but for some reason I thought it would have been a good idea so I hope the wait was worth it!!
As you can tell, Bea was a little out of it after being out in the cold for so long, but i mean hey! At least they kissed. Took me 24 chapters to get to it, but at least we got to it!
I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'm so glad we've made it this far aha.
-Diana