December 18th
6:02 PM
"Hi," Lauren said as she opened the door, wearing the smile that always made me smile with her. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas." I said as she stepped aside and let me in, hooking my arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. "Do I smell cookies?"
"Yeah," She laughed, smiling at me again and led me into the kitchen. "Mom is doing her yearly baking."
"Hi Justin," Ms. Renee turned, smiling over at me with a similar smile Lauren wore.
"Hi Ms. Renee." I smiled back at her. "It smells really good."
"Thanks." She laughed. "Oh Lauren, I saved that ginger bread house, in case you wanted to do it."
My eyes widened and I turned my head, shifting on both of my feet as I looked at Lauren.
"Can we? Please?"
"Sure." She laughed. "Where did you put it?"
"In the dining room. I figured I'd make a mess in here, so I thought you could do it in there, when you actually had space."
"Ok. Do you want to do it now?"
"If you want to." I shrugged.
"I do." She nodded, motioning with her head to the dining room.
"Yay."
She giggled, shaking her head at me and picked it up.
"I'm warning you now, I'm a sucker for this frosting." She told me pointing at the box.
"Me too, it's ok." I grinned, then kissed her cheek. "You look pretty."
"Thank you." She blushed, resting her face into my shoulder
"You're welcome."
"You're going to help us decorate the tree, right?"
"Of course I am." I nodded, "that's one of the best parts."
"Yeah, it is." She smiled, her hair gently falling to one shoulder as she opened the box up. "Have you heard from your brother and sister?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "They're really excited to see you."
"Really?" He smile grew wider as she looked at me, the look on her face clearly not believing what I had said.
"Yeah, really." I nodded. "I think Jaxo has a little crush on you."
"No he doesn't." She laughed. "He's not even three yet, almost, but not quite."
"Little man has good taste," I shrugged. "What can I say?"
She blushed, trying to hide her face from me again as I smiled at her.
"Don't try to hide it. It's so cute."
"No it's not."
"Yes it is." I nodded, putting my arms around her waist all the way. "I wouldn't lie."
"I know." She turned her head, smiling back at me and kissed her cheek. "Now let's make a ginger bread house."
"Can the gingerbread man be named Justin?"
"Sure." She laughed. "He can be named Justin."
"Good. I'll probably eat him anyway."
"A gingerbread house without a gingerbread man to live in it. Poor house."
"Yummy house."
"You know what would be cool?" She asked.
"What?"
"If we made the frosting purple."
"You can do that?!" I asked, my eyes widening again as my mouth hung open.
"Yes I can do that."
"Do it!"
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7:42 PM
"Best gingerbread house in the history of gingerbread house making." I said, looking at it with my arms crossed.
"Because I made it!"
"You did not!"
"Yes I did, you made the gingerbread man, then you had it walking around, making it say how pretty I was."
"Ok, Justin does not lie." I picked up the gingerbreadman, holding it in front of her and made it move around. "Because Lauren is so pretty, and sweet, and pretty, and kind - and pretty."
"Stop!" She laughed, covering her cheeks in her hands.
"Gingerbread Justin loves Lauren.'
"Didn't your mom tell you not to play with your food?"
"Yes, did I listen? No." I chuckled, holding the gingerbread in front of her face. "Give Justin a kiss."
She leaned forward, kissing the gingerbread man and leaned back.
"No." I pouted, sitting it down and leaned into her. "I meant me."
"Well, when you have two Justin's, I thought I could pick."
"No!"
I heard Ms. Renee laughing from the kitchen, and I blushed slightly, hoping she hadn't heard me asking her daughter for a kiss, but then again I didn't care, we had been dating for six months now.
"I'm sorry." Lauren laughed. placing her hand on my neck and pulled herself forward, kissing me with her soft lips. "All better?"
"All better." I nodded once, standing up and poked my head around the corner to look at Ms. Renee. "We made a purple gingerbread house. It's pretty fantastic. So good I think Willy Wonka would want to buy it from us."
"I made it!" Lauren said from behind me.
"I helped you! Who held the pieces together while you put all purple goodness in between them? Me!"
"Oh shut up."
"Be nice." Ms. Renee said.
"Yeah, be nice to me." I said, sticking out my tongue.
She narrowed her eyes, sticking out her tongue back.
"No cookies for you."
"Here Justin." Ms Renee said, handing me a cookie and I smiled.
"Mom!"
"Thanks Ms. Renee." I said, smiling over at her and made a face at Lauren.
"Welcome."
"B-but," Lauren said, making a pouty face. "I want a cookie Mommy."
"Take them. Knowing me I'll make a whole other batch."
"Ha!" Lauren smiled, taking the plate and held it away from me.
"Sharing is caring." I said leaning forward on my toes.
"Oh blah blah."
"Justin, don't put up with it." Ms. Renee laughed. "Tickle her."
"No! Don't! You can have all the cookies you want!"
"I can have the cookies too if I tickle you." I said, reaching for her sides.
"Mother!"
"I was just helping." She shrugged.
"Him?"
"Hey, I like him. He's a nice kid - man. Whatever he's going by."
"I prefer man," I smiled at her, "But kid's ok too."
"I'm going to finish these, then we can decorate the tree, kay?"
"Kay." Lauren and I said at the same time, then I followed her into the living room.
"I love you. I'm just playing." I said, holding onto her waist.
"I know." She grinned, putting the plate down and turned her head. "I love you too."
"Are you excited to come home with me?" I asked her. "I get to take you home for Christmas."
"Yes, I'm excited. So excited I packed days ago."
"Really?"
"Mhm." She nodded, taking my hand off her waist and pulled me over to the couch. "I miss your family."
"They miss you too, and just to think, last time you were really with me there we were sneaking around."
"I know, it feels like a really long time ago."
"But it wasn't."
"Yeah," She said softly. "A lot has changed since then."
"How are you doing? Since the thing with your sister."
"Ok." She shrugged. "You were right about the whole inspiring people thing, but it really hasn't been easy either."
"People been saying stuff?"
"Yeah," She swallowed. "I've tried to not let it get to me because so many other people are really understanding about it, but other people - not so much."
"I'm sorry." I said, kissing the side of her head and pulled her legs on my lap.
"It's ok. A lot of good has come out of it too."
"I'm sure it has."
"It's been a really good past few weeks though. After New Years i'm back on the road again."
"And I'm in the studio till dawn."
"Are you still going to visit?"
"Whenever I can." I nodded, moving my thumb along her hip. "I'll make time for you. It's important."
"I know. You're right. You know I'll do the same. I'm just going to be all over the world the next few months, then I want to look into my acting stuff again. Doing that movie was fun - for the most part."
"For the most part." I scoffed.
I still haven't told her about what I did to Taylor. I'm too scared she'll be mad at me, and I'd rather not tell her. It was a good thing I finally did what i needed to do. I had put up with it for so long, and it's not fair for him to do that to her, or me. I'm not losing her again, to him.
"Justin, what's wrong?" She asked, the tips of her fingers turning me back to look at her.
"Nothing." I smiled at her, lightly shaking my head.
"Sure?"
"Yeah. I'm sure. I'm fine."
"Ok." She said, looking at me for a moment longer and I smiled, kissing her forehead so she wouldn't catch on.
Wow. You just lied.
Liar.
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This one is short. I know! I'm sorry! But the other's were both like 10 pages! And I wrote this one all today, the others took me longer, so I'll get back to writing! I'm still not feeling good though...BOOOOOO.