I reached for the doorknob and slowly (While gripping the knob so hard I thought I was going to twist it into a knot) opened the door, just to a small crack.
The scene was a simple one, the look of any teenage boy’s bedroom. Clothes were strewn across the room, so much that you could barely see the floor. All of the furniture was newly painted black and fit smug with the slate grey walls. The windows were covered by a veiling of red drapes that kind of broke the sunlight from the room, and turned it to a blood red tinting. My gaze averted to the bed in the corner of the room. The black sheets were caught in the corner in the wedge of the mattress and the pillows were thrown across the room. On the bed sat Justin. He was listening to some music in his iPod and had a book in hand. One leg was up and his elbow rested on his knee while the other leg spread in front of him. He was too much into his book that he didn’t notice me. I blinked and blushed inconveniently as I swallowed down the agony I was trying to keep in front blurting anything out that might catch his attention. In that still frame of eavesdropping on his life, I noticed a few things. When he wasn’t glaring at you, and he was at ease, his face was still fairly kid-like. He looked like he was – or is – still happy to some decree. It made me feel a bit better about him, though it didn’t make me forgive him for being a jerk to me, mouthing off, and slamming the door in my face.
But still, I couldn’t help but just look at him, his eyes were narrowed, but through his thick black eyelashes, I could still see that impish glint of blue in his marble eyes. My childhood was basically playing back to me in the segments where we still liked each other. At least to some extent.
Sadly, what I felt wasn’t something I’d felt in childhood. My heart started to skip beats. I never realized just how beautiful he was.
I got out of my own little fantasy world when I realized I was some stupid kid looking in on him probably with drool coming out of the side of my mouth by being struck dumb by the presence of girlish feelings. I started to close the door, but as I pulled back, I ran into something hard in presence, but right as I made contact, a pair of arms wrapped around my torso. Going red, I looked up to see Jack’s bright smiling face above me, “Peeping Tom.” He commented with a low chuckle.
“I didn’t mean-, and he-, and I-, and…”
“Save the excuses,” He laughed again as my face went redder by the minute, “I won’t tell.”
“Thanks……” I think…
Jack was just being Jack, I decided. He was the kind of person that didn’t take things seriously, but you could trust him either way. That was just his way.
“So, you ready to go? I gave Justin the pictures.”
My brain started to c***k; I wanted to figure out what Justin’s problem was, not to mention Mr. Simmons didn’t seem to want me to leave. So I didn’t really know where to turn. I replied to cut off the uncomfortable silence anyway, “Yeah I guess so.”
When we reached downstairs, Jack once again took a stab at trying to make chit-chat.
“So,” Jack began, being the great conversationalist, “Did you ever talk to Justin after that?”
I took a stab at reply, so as to cancel anymore awkward silence, “Kind of.” I murmured, low, trying to sound cold and hard, to hint that I didn’t really enjoy the statement.
Jack just looked utterly oblivious and confused. As if I had expected more…
“Oh. That’s too bad.” He commented.
I nodded as he headed for the stairs. I sadly followed behind him; I knew he was going to make fun of me for something on the way home. But I thought that maybe if I was smart and didn’t bring it up, I would only have to suffer his incrimination to a minimum. As we started to exit the house, going down the front steps toward the walkway/drive-thru type deal, a golf cart looking machine thing came up in front of us. In the drivers seat was a man in a chauffeur’s suit, and in the passenger’s seat with a woman that looked in her middle-forties. She was unnaturally blonde and very pale. She was in all white attire; skirt, tight thin shirt, and a white jacket that had golden cuffs holding the sleeves tightly to the wrists. I was surprised she wasn’t sweating to death from the heat and her smothering attire. But she was also wearing a white sunhat, and I think I saw her hair move while she was sitting, so there was probably air conditioning in the little golf cart type deal… I just sat there speechless; she looked like she had just come out of a fashion magazine, while I looked like I got puked on by the thrift store. Although I wasn’t usually at all self-conscious, I couldn’t help but feel slightly out of place. I looked over to Jack, but he didn’t seem to mind the sudden arrival of this middle aged woman who could easily pass for a model in her early twenties. The petite middle-aged goddess took a step out of the cart in her strappy white heels, and fluffed her silver blonde hair a bit before glancing my way. She had piercing dark eyes, almost black. Her onyx eyes drilled into me, and I literally winced before straightening back up.
Jack coughed and smiled a nervous smile as the woman walked by, “G’ day ma’am…” She huffed a hello in response, her voice was deep, but still had a light high toning in her voice.
Jack sighed and turned back to me, smiling bashfully as if nothing had happened.
Once she walked into the house and closed the door, I turned back to Jack, “Who was that?” I asked with a completely flat feel of confusion. No one told me anything anymore, did they?
“Oh. That’s Justin’s new step-mom. The one I told you about, the aristocrat. She’s the one that moved them all here, remember?”
I paused, going back to the conversation that I obviously hadn’t paid enough attention to. But once my mind was set, I nodded to Jack, “Oh. She looked….”
“Stiff?”
“Inhuman is more what I was going for.”
Jack nodded, “She’s not exactly my favorite person, but Mr. Simmons is nuts about her. They got married about a year ago.”
I paused, “That long?”
“I don’t know the exact date, maybe a year and a half?”
“Poor Justin…” I suddenly felt a surge of guilt for everything that had just gone on inside that house. But Jack just shook his head in response, “I don’t think he even cares anymore. It’s been so long, I don’t think he really cares about it – much less anything anymore.”
My heart sunk, so…. He was just lonely was all? I should’ve seen that coming.
The door opened.
I turned with Jack mirroring, and out of the door came Justin and his step-mom. Mrs. Simmons?
“Oh come now honey, you never introduced me to your friends.” Mrs. Simmons said with a grin, she had a very hearty tone in her voice, my thoughts of her lightened to a more positive feel, but it was brought right back down with how much hatred Justin gave as he glared at his new mother.
Justin was newly clothed in clean clothes, a basic black t-shirt and (designer) jeans. He turned and put a hand out lamely, elbow resting on his other arm as he pointed at Jack, “This is Jack, and the midget over there is Key.”
“Hey!” I couldn’t help but rebuttal, stomping a foot in reprise. I think I actually saw Justin chuckle.
“Now now, dear…” Mrs. Simmons mused, tugging at his ear sharply – thought he didn’t wince, “That isn’t nice. You shouldn’t insult young ladies like that.” She turned back to me, walking over with a gliding notion in her step. She put a French manicured hand out and faintly shook my hand, “Wonderful to meet you, I’m Mrs. Simmons, Justin’s step mother.” I nodded a reply because I was too distracted from feeling her hand. She felt… brittle; her hand was thin and delicate like tissue paper.
I looked down to my feet with a feeling of cowering as I murmured a bashful hello and said my name. I finally looked up at her deep black eyes until she pulled back. When she released my hand, almost automatically, she felt around in her white leather purse and found some hand sanitizer. She squirted her hands and put the bottle back in without a thought as she walked back beside her grieving step-son. “Well it was nice meeting you all.” Mrs. Simmons said with a graceful sweep of her hand. She turned around and walked into the house, leaving Justin vulnerable to any incrimination I could bestow until he was ready to retire back to his house.
But Jack was the first to speak.
“You still so-so about her, Justin?”
Justin just shrugged in response. He stuffed his thumbs in his back pockets of his jeans and walked down the steps of the house and stood in front of Jack. He narrowed his glistening eyes until he was basically drilling through Jack’s face. “Why’d you bring her?” He nodded his head toward me and looked at Jack with a sharp glare ten times worse than the first.
Jack didn’t even wince, “Am I not permitted to bring guests along?”
“No you aren’t!” Justin snapped, whipping his glance to me, “How much does it take to make you go away?”
“Don’t say that Justin.” It was Jack’s turn to look angry. He literally grabbed Justin’s shirt and pulled him back, “What the hell is your problem, man!? You haven’t seen her in forever and you act like a b***h!”
“You don’t have any reason to question my methods, Jack!”
They were both glaring each other down. It all happened so fast that it took me a long while to realize they were arguing about me. Nothing was making any sense to me anymore. I didn’t know what to say to any of this, so I just stood there silent like the insignificant mime I was.
Justin was panting in steaming fury with his shoulders raised in an attempt to calm down. Gradually, I think it was working. “Stay here.” He muttered. He turned and walked off to the left and past the house to somewhere in the back that I couldn’t see. He was following a drive way, but I was oblivious to what he was doing.
With my moment of silence, I turned to Jack and looked as creditable to an explanation as I could muster, “Do you two fight like that a lot?”
Jack swallowed, he didn’t answer for a few seconds, but he pulled his forgiving smile back into place as he looked down to me, “Actually yeah. Don’t you remember all those fights we would have behind the greenhouse in elementary school?”
I guess I did remember the black eye and the bloody noses. Strange to think I never asked.
“Yeah. We fight a lot, Key. That’s just the way we are sadly.” He laughed, “Some things never change.”
“Yeah. But Justin’s thought of me did…” I muttered this so quietly I don’t think he heard me.
From the back of the house, I could hear a loud screeching sound and a sound that would’ve made me thought they were training lions out back. But on the driveway came a shiny black Volvo that screeched to a halt in front of us. He unwound the window and looked at us both blankly, “Get in.” He commanded sharply.
…. My god, my brain is aching.
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Where Me, Myself and I will be held... Revision will commense soon enough.
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